Contains research objectives.National Institutes of Health (Grant MP-4737)National Science Foundation (Grant G- 16526)Computation Center, M.I.T

McCarthy, J. J.

Minsky, M. L.

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XXI. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEProf. J. McCarthy P. W. Abrahams E. L. IvieProf. M. L. Minsky D. G. Bobrow P. G. JensenProf. H. Rogers, Jr. D. A. Dawson D. C. LuckhamProf. C. E. Shannon T. P. Hart D. M. R. ParkProf. H. Teager U. ShimonyRESEARCH 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 the prob-lems by programming a computer to deal directly with the necessary abstractions, ratherthan by simulating hypothetical physiological structures. When a method for solving aproblem is not known, searches over spaces of potential solutions of the problem, or ofparts of the problem, are necessary. The space of potential solutions of interesting prob-lems is ordinarily so enormous that it is necessary to devise heuristic methods -3 toreplace the searching of this space by a hierarchy of searches over simpler spaces. Themajor difficulty, at present, is the excessive length of time required for building machin-ery or even for writing programs to test heuristic procedures. For this reason, themajor part of our effort is going into the development of ways of communicating with acomputer more effectively than we can now communicate. This work has two aspects:development of a system for instructing the computer in declarative, as well as impera-tive, sentences, called the advice taker,4 and development of a programming languagecalled LISP 5 - 7 for manipulating symbolic expressions that will be used for programmingthe advice-taker system and will also be of more general use.8J. McCarthy, M. L. MinskyReferences1. M. L. Minsky, Some methods of artificial intelligence and heuristic programming,Proc. Symposium on the Mechanisation of Thought Processes, National Physical Labo-ratory, Teddington, England, Nov. 24-27, 1958 (H. M. Stationery Off., London, 1959).2. M. L. Minsky, Steps toward artificial intelligence, Proc. IRE 49, 8-30 (1961).3. M. L. Minsky, A selected, descriptor-indexed bibliography to the literatureon artificial intelligence, Trans. IRE, vol. HFE-2, no. 1, pp. 39-55, March 1961.4. J. McCarthy, Programs with common sense, Proc. Symposium on the Mechani-sation of Thought Processes, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, England,Nov. 24-27, 1958 (H. M. Stationery Off., London, 1959).5. J. McCarthy, Recursive functions of symbolic expressions in computation bymachine, Part I, Commun. ACM 3, 184-195 (April 1960).6. J. McCarthy, A Basis for a Mathematical Theory of Communication, Proc.Western Joint Computer Conference, Los Angeles, California, May 1961.7. J. McCarthy, Computer Programs for Checking Mathematical Proofs, a paperpresented at the Symposium on Recursive Function Theory, New York, April 1961.8. J. McCarthy, Time-Sharing Computer Systems, a lecture, M. I. T., May 1961,to be published in Management and the Computer of the Future (The M. I. T. Press,Cambridge, Mass. and John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, forthcoming 1962).*This work is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (Grant MP-4737);in part by the National Science Foundation (Grant G- 16526); and in part by the Computa-tion Center, M. I. T.189

Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial Intelligence

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