# Origin of "Artificial Intelligence"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428 "2005-10-16T02:22:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/1 "2005-10-16T02:22:49Z")
The term “artificial intelligence”…does this pre-date the semiconductor? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/2 "2005-10-16T02:28:37Z")
The term was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/artificial\_intelligence.html](http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/artificial_intelligence.html) ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/3 "2005-10-16T02:32:46Z")
According to this page: [http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/history.html](http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/history.html) > [@](#): > > [A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence](http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth.html). J. McCarthy, M. L. Minsky, N. Rochester, and C.E. Shannon. August 31, 1955. “We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. 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.” **And this marks the debut of the term "artificial intelligence."** ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/4 "2005-10-16T04:44:39Z")
In a talk McCarthy gave at my university recently, he made the comment that his proposal was probably one of the grossest underestimates of the difficulty of a problem in the history of mankind. ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/5 "2005-10-16T04:51:54Z")
To actually address the OP’s question one has to also address the issue of when did the “semiconductor” come into existence? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-artificial-intelligence/326428/6 "2005-10-16T05:25:29Z")
> [@Waterman](#): > > To actually address the OP’s question one has to also address the issue of when did the “semiconductor” come into existence? Transistors were invented in the 40s and were coincidentally well on the way to replacing vaccum tubes for electronic computing purposes around the time that McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence.” If one wants to ignore the context of the question, crude, poorly-understood semiconductors had already been used for decades by [radio](http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/r/arar93/mds975/Content/crystalsets1.html) enthusiasts.