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The Founder of AI Killed Himself Because of Gay Hate

The tragic brilliance of Alan Turing

Christopher Kokoski
5 min readFeb 8, 2022
Image of Alan Turing from Wikimedia Commons — The Founder of AI Killed Himself Because of Gay Hate
Image of Alan Turing — Wikimedia CommonsLicense

OOne of the founders of artificial intelligence, Alan Turing’s life reads like a military spy novel gone wrong. Born in 1912 in London, England, Turing would go on to break codes in World War II, develop the mathematical and logical foundation for computers, write the first book on programming, and contribute profoundly to cryptanalysis, philosophy, logic, math, computer science, and cognitive science.

Tragically, his life ended in discrimination, hate, poison, and — according to some — murder.

This is the brilliant and terrible story of a misunderstood genius.

Codebreaking and Winning World Wars

After joining the Government Code and Cypher School, Turing worked alongside a team of other code-breakers to develop the infamous Bombe, a sophisticated code-breaking machine that supplied the Allies with vital information throughout the war.

In 1942, Turing managed to break into Germany’s supposedly unbreakable Enigma machine code — an incredible feat that most likely shortened World War II.

Numerous tales from Turing’s time at Bletchley Park have been reported. One of the more often-seen stories is that of Turing’s work on…

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Christopher Kokoski
Christopher Kokoski

Written by Christopher Kokoski

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