Retro AI: Exploring modern AI algorithms through the Commodore 64 and BASIC Video

Have you ever wondered where today’s AI ideas actually came from? In this talk, we’ll take a step back in time to explore modern AI by looking at the algorithms that shaped it. Using the Commodore 64 as our time machine, we’ll see how many of the core ideas behind today’s AI were already taking shape decades ago, as well as what happened to them. While modern systems benefit from vastly faster processors and enormous amounts of data, they’re still building on the same fundamental concepts. The big difference is scale, not intent. By revisiting classic algorithms written in BASIC on the C64, we’ll explore early approaches to natural language processing, expert systems, pattern recognition, problem solving, and machine learning. Along the way, we’ll connect these early experiments to the generative AI tools we use today and show just how consistent the underlying ideas have remained over time.