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Technology & Innovation
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The Pitch That Launched a Million Machines: How 'Artificial Intelligence' Got Its Name
In 1955, 'artificial intelligence' wasn't a buzzword but a clever phrase in a funding proposal. Computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term to secure a grant for a summer workshop, inadvertently naming and launching the entire field of AI research we know today.
Today, the term "Artificial Intelligence" is everywhere, powering everything from our smartphones to complex scientific research. It feels futuristic, vast, and inevitable. Yet, this globally recognized term didn't emerge from a lab breakthrough or a science fiction novel. It began its life in 1955 as a piece of strategic branding in a funding proposal for a small, two-month academic workshop.
A Summer Proposal and a New Frontier
In the mid-1950s, the field of computing was in its infancy. A handful of brilliant researchers scattered across different institutions were independently exploring the tantalizing idea of creating machines that could think. A young computer scientist and cognitive scientist at Dartmouth College, John McCarthy, believed that these disparate efforts needed a unifying event and, more importantly, a name.
McCarthy, along with Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon, drafted a proposal for a summer research project. Their goal was to gather the brightest minds to brainstorm how to make machines that could use language, form abstractions, solve problems reserved for humans, and improve themselves. To make this happen, they needed funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. And for their proposal to stand out, their ambitious new field needed a name.
Why 'Artificial Intelligence'?
McCarthy deliberately coined the term "artificial intelligence" for the proposal. The choice was both descriptive and tactical. At the time, the dominant related field was "cybernetics," pioneered by Norbert Wiener. McCarthy, however, wanted to distance his group's focus on symbolic logic and computation from the analog and biological feedback systems central to cybernetics. He needed a fresh, neutral, and ambitious term that would capture the imagination of the funders and define a new research program. "Artificial Intelligence" was optimistic, bold, and perfectly suited for a grant proposal aimed at launching a revolution.
The Ambitious Premise
The proposal for the "Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence" was built on an incredibly optimistic foundation. The authors laid out their core belief in the opening lines:
The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.
This statement was the mission brief for the entire field. While the 1956 workshop itself didn't produce a single unified theory, it succeeded in its primary goal: it brought the founding fathers of AI into the same room, established a shared vocabulary, and officially birthed AI as a legitimate, standalone academic discipline.
The Legacy of a Name
The term born out of a need for funding has since become one of the most significant phrases of the 21st century. While some still debate its accuracy—arguing for terms like "synthetic intelligence" or "computational rationality"—none have the staying power of McCarthy's original coinage. From a simple pitch to secure about $13,500 for a summer conference, "artificial intelligence" grew to define a global technological movement, proving that sometimes, the right name can be just as important as the idea itself.