Academia

Manchester, United Kingdom

University of Manchester

The first stored-program computer ran here, and the question of whether a machine can think was posed here in testable form.

2 key findings1 timeline milestones1 sources to follow

Key findings

  1. 1950

    Computing Machinery and Intelligence

    Alan Turing

    Replaced 'can machines think?' with the imitation game — a behavioural, decidable test — and pre-answered the standard objections.

    Why it matters here · Every claim about model 'understanding' in vendor marketing is still arguing with this paper, usually without knowing it.

  2. 2018

    SpiNNaker

    Steve Furber and team

    A million ARM cores wired to model spiking neural networks in biological real time.

    Why it matters here · The largest neuromorphic machine built — the reference point for event-driven, low-power AI hardware.

    1,000,000 cores

On the history timeline

Milestones on the 1943 → today timeline credited to this institution.

  • 1950Computing Machinery and IntelligenceAlan TuringFoundations

What to follow