The Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) was created by the University of Edinburgh in 1983 to work alongside its academic Department of Artificial Intelligence to encourage the development and take-up of artificial intelligence methods. Over the years it has created many innovative applications of AI with a wide range of clients, government agencies and collaborators. In 2001 it became part of the Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications (CISA) within the School of Informatics at Edinburgh continuing to lead its AI applications-orientated work. On 1st December 2019, the name of the Centre was changed to the "Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute" (AIAI) to reflect both the continuing research and applications aspects of the work. Applied AI work continues to be performed by staff, students and collaborators across the School of Informatics.
Artificial Intelligence work at Edinburgh can trace its origins to a small research group established in 1963 by Donald Michie, who had been a member of the code-breaking group that included Alan Turing at Bletchley Park. Over the years there have been a number of different organisational structures and department names for the AI groups.
A history of AI@Edinburgh has been provided by Jim Howe, the Head of the Department of AI at Edinburgh for many years. There is also a time line of Computing and Artificial Intelligence work at Edinburgh in the University of Edinburgh's Edit Magazine.
A number of other departments and schools at the University of Edinburgh as well as other research institutes in the School of Informatics work on a range of topics within the field of Artificial Intelligence.
The School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics, Computer Science, Software Engineering and Robotics.