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\F0\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F1
						January 3, 1973

Mr. Dominic Flessati
British Broadcasting Corporation
Room 4075
Kensington House
Richmond Way
London W14 OAX
England

Dear Dominic:

\J	Thank-you for your letter of 7 December.  Let me explain what I had in mind regarding
the tapes.  My original idea was simply to go over my own performance so that
I could do a better job in the future.  After a while, I also became interested
in the effects of editing on what I had to say.  It now turns out that my interest
in both of these matters was pretty well satisfied by watching the video tapes
combined with my memory of the performance.

	When I first met you, I became convinced that you were not prejudiced
against artificial intelligence, and I have retained that conviction.  Nevertheless,
it seems to me that there is always a difference in interest between a proponent
of a point of view, especially a scientific one, and a producer who is interested
in creating a good show.  However, the editing of the Lighthill debate does not
give me any illustrations of this theoretical belief.  I believe the editing was fair and that the resulting
tape is representative of what was said at the Royal Institution.  The condensation
was on the whole an improvement even for a scientific audience which also has a limit
on its patience.

	One minor grumble--you included a sentence of mine to the effect that I didn't identify
the field of artificial intelligence with my own career.  This remark was intended as
a \F2dig\F1 at Lighthill's statement that hydrodynamics was also to some extent played
out, and this remark you omitted.  From my own polemical point of view this was too 
bad, because a scientist more familiar with mathematics and physics than with
artificial intelligence might be able to calibrate Lighthill's pessimism by comparing
it with his similar pessimism about his own field.

	Also, I thought the scene with the glasses of water was funny, but I suppose:
the cameras didn't get both sides of it.  Was that why you omitted the whole thing?\.

						With best wishes for a happy new year,
			


						John McCarthy
						Professor of Computer Science
						Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory


\JP.S.  Please don't fell obligated to answer.  We have made you write enough letters
already.\.