The document in which the words "Artificial Intelligence" were written for the first time

The document in which the words "Artificial Intelligence" were written for the first time

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from John McCarthy to Robert S. Morrison

The term “artificial intelligence” is coined in a proposal for a “2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence” submitted by John McCarthy (Dartmouth College), Marvin Minsky (Harvard University), Nathaniel Rochester (IBM), and Claude Shannon (Bell Telephone Laboratories). The workshop, which took place a year later, in July and August 1956, is generally considered as the official birthdate of the new field. Most of us know this, but in a book I read, I learned that there was a letter with the first word "artificial intelligence". This letter was written by John McCarthy while requesting funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. This got me very excited and for those who are curious about the rest of the letter, "Proposal for the Dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence" PDF download

Proposal for the Dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence

Dartmouth workshop

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was a 1956 summer workshop widely considered to be the founding event of artificial intelligence as a field.

The project lasted approximately six to eight weeks and was essentially an extended brainstorming session. Eleven mathematicians and scientists originally planned to attend; not all of them attended, but more than ten others came for short times.

###Background In 1955, John McCarthy, then a young Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Dartmouth College, decided to organize a group to clarify and develop ideas about thinking machines. He picked the name 'Artificial Intelligence' for the new field.

In early 1955, McCarthy approached the Rockefeller Foundation to request funding for a summer seminar at Dartmouth for about 10 participants. In June, he and Claude Shannon, a founder of information theory then at Bell Labs, met with Robert Morison, Director of Biological and Medical Research to discuss the idea and possible funding, though Morison was unsure whether money would be made available for such a visionary project.

On September 2, 1955, the project was formally proposed by McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon. The proposal is credited with introducing the term 'artificial intelligence'.

###The Proposal states We propose that a 2-month, 10-man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer.

The proposal goes on to discuss computers, natural language processing, neural networks, theory of computation, abstraction and creativity (these areas within the field of artificial intelligence are considered still relevant to the work of the field).

###Dates The Dartmouth Workshop is said to have run for six weeks in the summer of 1956. Ray Solomonoff's notes written during the Workshop, however, say it ran for roughly eight weeks, from about June 18 to August 17. Solomonoff's Dartmouth notes start on June 22; June 28 mentions Minsky, June 30 mentions Hanover, N.H., July 1 mentions Tom Etter. On August 17, Ray gave a final talk.

###Event and aftermath Did they reach their goals in those 2 months? I mean, the 10 best researchers in the field were under one roof. They must have found something.

They failed to do what they intended, and no projects were launched. McCarthy explains three reasons for his failure: First, the Rockefeller Foundation only gave them half of the money they wanted. Second, and that's the main reason, all of the participants had their own research agenda and didn't get very far from them. Third: Participants came to Dartmouth at different times and at different times.

###The Next Fifty Years Trenchard More, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Oliver Selfridge, and Ray Solomonoff

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