John McCarthy, seminal figure of artificial intelligence, dies at 84

October 26, 2011
John McCarthy

John McCarthy, 1927 - 2011 (credit: Stanford University)

John McCarthy, a professor emeritus of computer science at StanfordĀ  University, who coined the term “artificial intelligence” and subsequently went on to define the field for more than five decades, died at his home in Stanford in the early morning Monday, Oct. 24. He was 84.

In his career, he developed the programming language LISP, played computer chess via telegraph with opponents in Russia, and invented computer time-sharing.

He co-founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Project and what became the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, serving as director at Stanford from 1965 until 1980, and was honored by Association of Computing Machinery with the A. M. Turing Award, the highest recognition in computer science, in 1971.

In 1960, McCarthy authored a paper titled, “Programs with Common Sense,” laying out the principles of his programming philosophy and describing “a system which is to evolve intelligence of human order.”

During his remarkable career, McCarthy co-founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Project and what became the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, serving as director at Stanford from 1965 until 1980. He was named the Charles M. Pigott Professor at the Stanford School of Engineering in 1987, before stepping down in 1994.

Source: Stanford University News

 John McCarthy

In 1966, John McCarthy hosted a series of four simultaneous computer chess matches carried out via telegraph against rivals in Russia (credit: Stanford University)