In the world of artificial intelligence (AI), we’ve experienced a number of cold spells. These are characterised by a lack of breakthroughs and a decrease in the number of AI-related projects and startups.

The first AI winter occurred in the 1970s, after a period of high optimism and funding for AI research in the 1960s. This was followed by a second AI winter in the 1980s, and a third one in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thankfully, progress in AI research has continued and the field has seen many advances in recent years. We’ve witnessed a resurgence in interest and funding, driven in part by breakthroughs in machine learning and deep learning, as well as practical applications of AI in areas such as self-driving cars and natural language processing.