To predict the future, it is helpful, even advisable, to understand the past, and the history of endoscopy reveals much about the mechanisms whereby innovation occurred. From the time when the early pioneers faced two obvious problems in gastrointestinal endoscopy (GE): the gut being not straight and dark inside, to the present date when artificial intelligence (AI) is going to provide an effective and practical method for endoscopists in lesion detection and characterization, lie valuable lessons and great hopes for further advancements in endoscopy in this field.