High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In the history of artificial intelligence, an AI winter is a period of reduced funding and interest in artificial intelligence research. The term was coined by analogy to the idea of a nuclear winter. The field has experienced several cycles of hype, followed by disappointment and criticism, followed by funding cuts, followed by renewed interest years or decades later. There were two major winters in 1974–80 and 1987–93 and several smaller episodes, including: