Greek myths featured thinking machines and artificial beings. Alan Turing's theory of computation laid the foundation for modern computers and AI research. Experts predicted that AI would not beat humans at Go until 2027, but it happened 10 years earlier in 2017 when AlphaGo Zero learned to be the best Go player in just 40 days of self-play. John McCarthy is considered the "father of AI" for his early leadership in the field.