Contains research objectives.Computation Center, M.I.T

McCarthy, J. J.

Minsky, M. L.

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XVI. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEProf. J. McCarthy P. W. Abrahams W. LeetProf. M. L. Minsky D. G. Bobrow D. C. LuckhamProf. N. Rochestert R. K. Brayton K. MalingProf. C. E. Shannon L. Hodes S. R. RussellL. KleinrockRESEARCH OBJECTIVESThe purpose of our work is to investigate ways of making machines solve problemsthat are usually considered to require intelligence. Our procedure is to attack theproblems by programming a computer to deal directly with the necessary abstractionsrather than by simulating hypothetical physiological structures. When a method forsolving a problem is not known, searches over spaces of potential solutions of theproblem or of parts of the problem are necessary. The space of potential solutions ofinteresting problems is ordinarily so enormous that it is necessary to devise heuristicmethods (1) to replace the searching of this space by a hierarchy of searches oversimpler spaces. The major difficulty at present is the excessive length of time requiredfor building machinery or even for writing programs to test heuristic procedures.For this reason, the major part of our effort is going into the development of ways ofcommunicating with a computer more effectively than is now possible. This work hastwo aspects: a system for instructing the computer in declarative as well as imperativesentences, called the advice taker (2), and a programming language (3) for manipulatingsymbolic expressions that will be used for programming the advice-taker system andwill also be of more general use.Abrahams, Kleinrock, McCarthy, and Shannon are working on a chess program.The legal move routines are complete and working, and some of the tactical routineshave been written.Bobrow, Minsky, and Shannon are working on the design of a mechanical hand as acomputer input-output device. The goal includes devising a way of representing abstrac-tion of physical actions in the computer.Rochester is working on the application of the programming language to certainroutine problems in mathematics and engineering in which the answer is to be furnishedby the machine as a formula rather than as a table of numbers.Some other members of the group are undertaking programs to carry out the oper-ations of elementary calculus and to generate descriptions of the objects in pictures.J. McCarthy, M. L. MinskyReferences1. M. L. Minsky, Some methods of artificial intelligence and heuristic programming,paper presented at the Symposium on the Mechanization of Thought Processes,National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, England, Nov. 24-27, 1958.2. J. McCarthy, Programs with common sense, paper presented at the Symposium onthe Mechanization of Thought Processes, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington,England, Nov. 24-27, 1958.3. J. McCarthy, An algebraic language for the manipulation of symbolic expressions,Internal Memoranda, Artificial Intelligence Project, M.I.T., Sept.-Nov. 1958.This work is supported jointly by Research Laboratory of Electronics and theComputation Center, M.I.T.TVisiting Professor of Electrical Engineering, M.I.T.tBrown University.129

Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial Intelligence

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