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\C\F2ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE STANFORD AI LABORATORY\F0


\J	This 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 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,
\F1Computing Machinery and Intelligence\F0.  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.

	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.

	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.  As this is written -
summer 1973 - the representation problem seems to be the key problem
in artificial intelligence.

	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
can be obtained from Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Calif.
at a cost of $15.00.  Some current books and papers are listed at
the end of this writeup.  The Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory has a series of research reports which are included
in the reports put out by the Computer Scieoce Department.  One can
get on the list to receive announcements of reports by writing them.
We also have some 16mm films for loan.

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

	2. Manipulation.  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. Driving a vehicle.

	4. Theorem proving.  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. Mathematical theory of computation.  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. Game playing.  Some work in checkers, chess and go has been done,
but we are not active in this field at present.

	7. Speech recognition.

	8. Computer graphics.  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.

	9. There is also development of time-sharing techniques especially
for display oriented time-sharing systems.


	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.  Connected to
the system are television cameras, mechanical arms, and a computer controllable
cart with a TV camera.

	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.

	The director of the Laboratory is John McCarthy, professor of computer
science.  The associate directors are Jerome Feldman, associate professor
of computer science and Lester Earnest who is also executive officer of the
laboratory. The mailing address of the laboratory is

			Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
			Stanford, California 94305\.


\F3
References


[1]  Newell, Allen and Simon, Herbert A., HUMAN PROBLEM SOLVING, Prentice-Hall,
	Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1972).

[2]  Nilsson, Nils, PROBLEM SOLVING METHODS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, 
	McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1971).

[3]  Nilsson, Nils, "Artificial Intelligence" in PROCEEDINGS IFIP CONGRESS 1974,
	Stockholm, Sweden, (1974) and also ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER TECHNICAL
	NOTE #89, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California, (1974).

[4]  Slagle, James R., ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:  THE HEURISTIC-PROGRAMMING
	APPROACH, McGraw-Hill, (1971).