In years to come Minsky will probably be remembered as the man who proved that perceptrons couldn’t learn, which is a shame given his other accomplishments. Every AI expert falls into the trap of thinking that real AI should be achievable within a few years and they always end up disillusioned when they discover that this isn’t possible. It isn’t because they overrate the power of the computer, it’s because they underrate the power and complexity of the human brain. The discovery that it’s more difficult isn’t the same as that it’s impossible.

The final question every wants to know the answer to is – was Marvin the Paranoid Android in “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” an offhand tribute to Minsky who built so many robots? A nice idea, but according to the author,  Douglas Adams, the robot wasn't even his invention and was originally called "Marshall".

Marvin Minsky died of a cerebral hemorrage on January 24, 2016, aged 88. News of his death was reported by MIT, where he had worked for over half a century. Daniela Rus, Director of CSAIL wrote in the MIT obituary:

“Marvin Minsky helped create the vision of artificial intelligence as we know it today. The challenges he defined are still driving our quest for intelligent machines and inspiring researchers to push the boundaries in computer science.”

Minsky's pioneering work in artificial intelligence was repeatedly recognised during his lifetime. He received the ACM Turing Award in 1969 and the Japan Prize in 1990. In 2014 he was the recipient of the  BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies for: 

His work on machine learning, on systems integrating robotics, language, perception and planning, as well as on frame-based knowledge representation, shaped the field of artificial intelligence.

On being notified of this award, Minsky reconfirmed his conviction that one day we will develop machines that will be as smart as humans, adding:

“how long this takes will depend on how many people we have working on the right problems. Right now there is a shortage of both researchers and funding.” 

Minsky would undoubtedly have been thrilled at the amount of progress that has been made towards General Artificial Intelligence in the past couple of years - due in large part to the amount of compute power and data that has devoted to the endeavor.

Marvin Minsky in 2008 (Source: Wikipedia)

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