Artificial intelligence · 1943

McCulloch-Pitts neuron

The first mathematical model of a neuron: a threshold unit that computes logic.

Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts showed that networks of simple binary threshold units could compute any logical proposition. Their paper linked brains, logic and Turing's machines, and every artificial neural network descends from this abstraction.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Turing machine 1936
Boolean logic 1854

What it led to 4

Cybernetics 1948
Hebbian learning 1949
Dartmouth AI workshop 1956
Perceptron 1958

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Training compute of notable AI models Source: Epoch AI, Notable AI Models (CC BY 4.0)

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6