The Economic Times

In 1944, Howard Aiken and IBM engineers completed Harvard's Mark I, a 51-foot-long calculator that handled wartime calculations for the US Navy

In 1944, Harvard's Mark I emerged as a revolutionary 10,000-pound calculator for the U.S. Navy, pivotal in military operations such as ballistics during World War II. Grace Hopper notably influenced its functionality and pioneered the COBOL programming language. Mark I's legacy highlights the significance of government investment in technological breakthroughs, echoing its impact on modern artificial intelligence innovations.