In The News

Computer scientist who coined the term artificial intelligence passes away

Computer scientist who coined the term artificial intelligence passes away

THE death has taken place of John McCarthy, the computer scientist who coined the term artificial intelligence. He was 84.

Dr. McCarthy had worked on the concept of artificial intelligence, which is founded on the notion that human intelligence can be simulated by machines,  since the 1950s.

He then established AI laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before becoming the founding director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford.

Dr. McCarthy was ahead of his time on many issues — he foresaw a form of computer time-sharing which is today known as ‘cloud computing’.

And in the early 1970s he began to talk about what he termed as an “electronic commerce” which would develop in the future and allow people to buy and sell through the use of computers.

However, because of his belief that the future would enable people to share a single computer source, he did not foresee the rise of the personal computer.

But he was to concentrate his efforts on AI, going on to developed the Lisp computer language which became the standard tool for those involved in research and design in artificial intelligence.

While artificial intelligence has still not been developed, Dr. McCarthy was at the centre of progress which has been made in systems that mimic many human skills.

 

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