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\F4Artificial Intelligence Laboratory\CJanuary 1975\.\RJohn McCarthy, Director
Stanford University\R Les Earnest, Assoc. Dir.
Stanford, California 94305


\C\F2ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE STANFORD A.I. LAB.

\J\F1This is a general article for answering inquiries about
artificial intelligence and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory.  We hope it answers your questions.

	\F1Artificial intelligence\F0 is the name given to the study
of intellectual processes and how computers can be made to carry them
out.  Most workers in the field believe that it will be possible to program
computers to carry out any intellectual process now done by humans.
However, almost all agree that we are not very close to this goal
and that some fundamental discoveries must be made first.  Therefore,
work in AI includes trying to analyze intelligent behavior into more
basic data structures and processes, experiments to determine if
processes proposed to solve some class of problems really work, and
attempts to apply what we have found so far to practical problems.

	The idea of intelligent machines is very old in fiction, but
present work dates from the time stored program electronic computers
became available starting in 1949.  Any behavior that can be carried
out by any mechanical device can be done by a computer, and getting a
particular behavior is just a matter of writing a program unless the
behavior requires special input and output equipment.  It is perhaps
reasonable to date AI from A.M. Turing's 1950 paper [1].  Newell,
Shaw and Simon started their group in 1954 and the M.I.T. Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory was started by McCarthy and Minsky in 1958.\.

\C\F2Board Games\F0

\J	Early work in AI included programs to play games like chess and
checkers and kalah and go.  The success of these programs was related
to the extent that human play of these games makes use of mechanisms
we didn't understand well enough to program.  If the game requires only
well understood mechanisms, computers play better than humans.  Kalah
is such a game.  The best rating obtained in tournament play by a
chess program so far is around 1700 which is a good amateur level.
The chess programmers hope to do better.\.

\C\F2Formal Reasoning\F0

\J	Another early problem domain was theorem proving in logic.  This
is important for two reasons.  First, it provides another area in which
our accomplishments in artificial intelligence can be compared with
human intelligence.  Again the results obtained depend on what intellectual
mechanisms the theorem proving requires, but in general the results have
not been as good as with game playing.  This is partly because the
mathematical logical systems available were designed for proving
metatheorems about rather than for proving theorems in.

	The second reason why theorem proving is important is that
logical languages can be used to express what we wish to tell the
computer about the world, and we can try to make it reason from this
what it should do to solve the problems we give it.  It turns out to
be quite difficult to express what humans know about the world in the
present logical languages or in any other way.  Some of what we know
is readily expressed in natural language, but much basic information
about causality and what may happen when an action is taken is not
ever explicitly stated in human speech.  This gives rise to the
representation problem of determining what is known in general about
the world and how to express it in a form that can be used by the
computer to solve problems.  At this time, the representation problem
seems to be the key problem in artificial intelligence.\.

\C\F2Publications\F0

\J	The results of current research in artificial intelligence is
published in the journal \F1Artificial Intelligence\F0, and in more
general computer science publications such as those of the ACM and
the British Computer Society.  The ACM has a special interest group
on artificial intelligence called SIGART which publishes a bulletin.
Every two years there is an international conference on artificial
intelligence which publishes a proceedings.  The third and most
recent was held at Stanford in the summer of 1973 and the proceedings
are available [2].

	Some current books and papers are listed at the end of this writeup
[3, 4, 5, 6].  The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has a
series of research reports (A.I. Memos) which are included in the
reports put out by the Computer Science Department.  One can get on
the list to receive announcements of reports by writing to [7].
A ten-year summary of A.I. Lab. research with absracts of all reports
is available [8], as well as a summary of recent work [9].
We also have some 16mm films for loan [10].\.

\C\F2Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory\F0

\J	The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was started in
1963 and moved to its present location at 1600 Arastradero Road, Palo
Alto in 1966.  Since the beginning, our work has been mostly supported
by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Defense Department, but
we have also been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health,
and private foundations.

	Our research goals include all areas of artificial intelligence,
mathematical theory of computation (the problem of specifying properties
of computer programs and proving that the programs meet their
specifications), studies in natural language, and studies in time-sharing
and other aspects of computer systems.  However, the main work of the
laboratory since its inception has included the following:

	1. \F1Computer vision.\F0  Images are obtained from a television camera
and are processed to describe the scene in ways appropriate
to the purpose of the program.  These purposes include manipulation, driving
a vehicle, and simply checking our understanding of perceptual mechanisms.

	2. \F1Manipulation.\F0  Programs have been and are being developed to
assemble objects out of parts.  A recent program assembles the water
pump from a Model T Ford.

	3. \F1Driving a vehicle.\F0

	4. \F1Theorem proving.\F0  Programs using J. Alan Robinson's resolution
method of proving theorems in first order logic are used to prove theorems
in mathematics, to prove properties of computer programs, and to generate
computer programs having prescribed properties.

	5. \F1Mathematical theory of computation.\F0  Methods for proving properties
of programs are developed.  Programs for checking proofs in first order logic
and in a special logic of computable functions have been developed.

	6. \F1Automatic programming.\F0

	7. \F1Game playing.\F0  Some work in checkers, chess and go has been done,
but we are not active in this field at present.

	8. \F1Speech recognition,\F0 also inactive currently.

	9. \F1Natural language understanding.\F0

	10. \F1Computer graphics.\F0  Programs have been written to allow a computer
designer to put logic diagrams in the computer and diagrams for printed circuit
boards.  An integrated system checks consistency of the various diagrams,
permits changes to be made easily, and produces output for the automatic
manufacture of printed circuit boards and for automatic wire wrapping machines.

	A separate project allows the design of three dimensional objects and
their display in various views, and the simulation of their motion and
operation of joints.

	11. \F1Time-sharing systems.\F0 There is also development of
time-sharing techniques especially for display oriented systems.\.

\C\F2Computer Facilities\F0

\J	The computer facilities of the laboratory comprise PDP-10 and PDP-6
processors, 256K words of core, a swapping disk, an IBM 3330 for file storage,
a six terminal vector type keyboard and display system and a 60 terminal
raster type display system, A-D and D-A converters, a connection to
the ARPA network, and a few external teletype speed lines.  There is also
a PDP-11/45 system for controlling real-time devices, with 200k words of
MOS and core memory and an SPS-41 processor.   Connected to
the system are television cameras, mechanical arms, and a computer controllable
cart with a TV camera.\.

\C\F2Staff\F0

\J	The personnel of the laboratory include faculty and students of the
Computer Science Department and a few other departments at Stanford
University, the professional staff, and some research associates.
Potential graduate students wishing to specialize in artificial intelligence
and do research in the laboratory should usually apply for admission to
the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.  Potential research
associates should apply directly to the laboratory.\.

\C\F2References\F0

[1]  Turing, A. M. \F2Computing Machinery and Intelligence\F0, \F1Mind,\F0 1950.\;
 Reprinted in J. R.
     Newman (ed.), \F1The World of Mathematics,\F0 Vol. 4, p. 2099,\;
 Simon & Shuster, New York, 1956.

[2]  \F1Advanced Papers of the Third International Joint Conference on\;
 Artificial Intelligence\F0,
     August 1973.  Available from Dr. Donald Walker,\;
 Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park,
     Calif.; price: $15.00.  

[3]  Newell, Allen and Simon, Herbert A., \F1Human Problem Solving\F0,\;
 Prentice-Hall, Englewood
     Cliffs, New Jersey, 1972.

[4]  Nilsson, Nils, \F1Problem Solving Methods in Artificial Intelligence\F0,\;
 McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1971.

[5]  Nilsson, Nils, \F2Artificial Intelligence\F0, in \F1Proc. IFIP Congress 1974\F0,\;
 Stockholm, Sweden,
     1974.

[6]  Slagle, James R., \F1Artificial Intelligence:  The Heuristic-Programming Approach\F0,
     McGraw-Hill, 1971.

[7]  To obtain abstracts of recent Computer Science Reports, including A. I. Memos,\;
 write to:
	\F1Documentation Services
	Computer Science Department
	Stanford University
	Stanford, California 94305\F0

[8]  Earnest, Lester (ed.), \F2The First Ten Years of Artificial Intelligence\;
 Research at Stanford\F0,
     Stanford A.I. Lab. Memo AIM-228, July 1973.  Available in microfiche only from
     \F1Documentation Services\F0 (address in letterhead), or\;
 in hard copy or microfiche as accession
     No. ADA776233/9WC from:
	\F1National Technical Information Service
	5285 Port Royal Road
	Springfield, Virginia 22161\F0

[9]  Earnest, Lester, (ed.), \F2Recent Research in Artificial Intelligence,\;
 Heuristic Programming,
     and Network Protocols\F0, Stanford A. I. Lab Memo AIM-252, July 1974.\;
 Available in
     microfiche from A.I. Lab. (address in letterhead) or in hard copy or microfiche
     from N.T.I.S. (address just above) as accession No. ADA002246.

[10] To request a list of films on A. I. Lab. research, write to\;
 \F1Documentation Services\F0
     (address in letterhead).