The discipline of AI as it is known today has evolved over the past 7 decades of human striving.

It is the outcome of relentless efforts by researchers over time who persevered to develop theories and techniques to create computing systems that emulate and on occasion outperform the human brain.

Here's a brief account on how the discipline was born and the areas of research which led to its evolution and growth to its existing level. 

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was the name of a 1956 undertaking now considered the seminal event for artificial intelligence as a field. Organized by John McCarthy (then at Dartmouth College) and formally proposed by McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon this research proposal is credited with formally introducing the term 'artificial intelligence'.

John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky who coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1955, defined it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines".

Listed below are the primary areas of human endeavor which led to the birth and evolution of the field of AI

1. Human knowledge and intelligence augmentation by Mathematics, Philosophy, Biology and Cognitive Psychology.
2. Development of various methods of reasoning, eg, knowledge-based inferencing, behavioral and sub-symbolic (connectionist).
3. Scientific study of intelligent systems related to computational processes.
4. Technological development of ‘smart’ systems capable of intelligent behavior akin to that of humans.