Pamela McCorduck
Monday 19 April, 2021, at 16:30
Early AI in the United States
Early AI in the United States can usefully be divided into generations: (1) the forefathers, such as John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and Warren McCulloch, whose ideas were rich but unrealizable, mainly for technological reasons; (2) the founding fathers, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, and Herbert Simon, whose work laid the foundations for AI; (3) one son, Edward Feigenbaum, whose work brought about a paradigm change in AI; (4) and a friendly but essential godfather to the entire project, J. C. R. Licklider, who made sure the entire project was generously supported.
Short bio
Pamela McCorduck (1940–2021) wrote the first modern history of AI, Machines Who Think, and has written a number of books related to AI since. Her most recent book is a memoir, This Could Be Important: My Life and Times with the Artificial Intelligentsia.