Donald Michie: From Codebreaking to Machine Learning

In 1960, Michie created MENACE (Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine)

In 1960, Michie created MENACE (Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine). It consisted of 304 matchboxes, each representing a possible state of a Tic-Tac-Toe board.

Inside were colored beads representing moves. By removing beads that led to a loss and adding beads for a win, the machine 'learned' to play perfectly over time.

This was a tangible demonstration of Reinforcement Learning, decades before AlphaGo.

This was a tangible demonstration of Reinforcement Learning, decades before AlphaGo. Michie went on to found the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception at the University of Edinburgh, which became one of the world's leading AI centers.

He was also a pioneer in robotics, building 'FREDDY', a robot that cou

He was also a pioneer in robotics, building 'FREDDY', a robot that could assemble wooden blocks and cars using vision and touch. Michie championed the idea that AI should be understandable to humans, a concept now referred to as 'Explainable AI' (XAI).

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