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\F2\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F0


							October 8, 1973


Mr. John W. Ahlhauser
Indiana University
Department of Journalism
Ernie Pyle Hall
Bloomington, Indiana 47401


Dear Mr. Ahlhauser:

\J	I have envisaged the electronic newspaper as part of a more
comprehensive home computer terminal service.  I enclose a reprint of a
paper that gives my ideas on what this might be like.

	You will notice from the paper that substantial changes in the way
many things are done are advocated.  This raises the problem of how we get
there from here.  Therefore, we have tried to devise some useful home terminal
services that can be done without major changes.  One of these has been the
news service based on the Associated Press A-wire.  A writeup on that is also
enclosed.

	At present, the A.P. news service is used about 1500 times per month;
about half this use is in our own laboratory and about half is from other
laboratories on the ARPA network.  In the last few days, the new Mideast war
has caused considerably greater usage.  The biggest weakness of the service
from my point of view is the superficiality of the stories.  When one is interested
in a topic, one would like to go deeper into it than the newspapers seem to
require from A.P.  Clearly the reporters on the spot know more than the wire
services want, and therefore it seems to me that a news gathering organization
working on behalf of home terminal subscribers would make available much more
copy than present wire services do.

	In my opinion, it is unlikely that an electronic newspaper alone would
justify what home terminals will cost.  It also seems to me very desirable that
the reader have selectivity.  Further, the technology is not the main problem.
The main problem is figuring a cost-effective way of getting from here to there.
At present, the National Science Foundation is reluctant even to pay for
research in this direction.

	I would be interested in reading more about your ideas on the electronic
newspaper.  If you find yourself in the San Francisco area, please visit, and
if you are interested in seeing a demonstration of our news service, one could
undoubtedly be arranged at the University of Illinois which is probably the
nearest ARPA net place to you.\.

							Sincerely yours,



							John McCarthy
							Professor of Computer Science
							Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory