Though the idea of an artificial thinking machine has been around since ancient Greek writings of mechanical men, it was the early computer age that made the concept seem obtainable When the term artificial intelligence – AI – was coined in 1955 Dr. Yu-Chuan Li wasn’t yet born. For Dr. Li, growing up with early portrayals of artificial thinking technology in movies was fascinating, and access to early computers made it possible to begin working with AI in high school.