This article is a non-expert overview of intelligent technology-based instructional machines, from the first stages of their emergence up to this date. It is attempted to demonstrate their trend of evolution, and how the advances in other related fields such as education, psychology, and computer science affected them and contributed to their progress. It starts by an account of the concept of intelligent technology-based instruction and continues by defining the notion of learner integration in such systems. Furthermore, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are pictured: how they evolved, their architecture, and how they contributed to the field of Adaptive Learning Systems (ALSs). Finally, a number of adaptive learning platforms which are the state of the art and currently used by large numbers of actual users are introduced and described.