Consider that in 1955 (the year I chose above), Fortran was still two years in the future. At this point in time, people were still wrapping their heads around the concept of a library of pre-existing routines that new programs could call. Compilers for algebraic languages pre-Fortran was even called "automatic programming" at the time. Also keep in mind that although the mid '50s was when software and computer science was emerging as a distinct discipline, it wasn't until the '60s that independent CS departments emerged and it took even longer for that to be the norm in most universities. Animats and osteele is a sibling thread have interesting anecdotes in this regard. So I think it's quite possible that electrical engineers at the time not seeing a future where people would think about software independent of hardware. (To see some documents from the time, I wrote about some my family had a while back: http://www.scott-a-s.com/grandfather-univac/)
I don't think it's obvious that AI and data science will be distinct fields from CS. I just think it's quite possible, and if it does happen, this is the time people will point to when it started emerging on its own.
I don't think it's obvious that AI and data science will be distinct fields from CS. I just think it's quite possible, and if it does happen, this is the time people will point to when it started emerging on its own.