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\F0\CSTANFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F1
						December 4, 1973

Mr. Wes Gallagher
President and General Manager
The Associated Press
50 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10020

Dear Mr. Gallagher:

\J	Enclosed is a list of installations on the ARPA network.
As you see it includes some government laboratories, though none
which would have a professional interest in the news such as
an intelligence agency.

	The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is supported
by ARPA which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency and is
a part of the Department of Defense under the Secretary of Defense (far
under).
Our project does basic research in computer science, especially
in artificial intelligence (trying to make computer programs
behave intelligently). Enclosed is a copy of a recent technical
report summarizing our activities.  All the work is unclassified
and publicly available which is a requirement for all research projects
carried on at Stanford University.

	So far as I am aware, the only network use of the APE program
consists of individuals satisfying their own curiousity in the day's
news, and demonstrations illustrating the facilities of the network
and the kind of program that may one day be commonplace.
As I estimated before, the total usage corresponds to a newspaper with
a circulation of about 30.

	At present it is not possible to determine the names of network
or other users of the program.  In the first place, anyone who is logged
into our system can type "R APE" as you saw me do, and he is then
talking to the program.  No record is kept of the names of users of
particular programs.  In the second place, most people who log in to
our system over the net identify themselves only as NET,GUE, i.e.
"network guest" when they enter our system.  The exceptions are people
who use the system regularly enough to want file directories.  However,
it would be possible to change the APE program to ask for the name
of the user, and we will do this if you insist, but I'd rather not as
people might think the Defense Department was snooping on who is
interested in what news.

	I am quite sure that anyone who wanted to use the APE program
systematically would want more or less guaranteed access and would have
to request it from us.  If anyone does, we will make your consent a
requirement.  In order to make doubly sure, I have sent your letter,
this reply and a covering letter to Dr. J. C. R. Licklider who will
be the new Director for Information Processing Techniques of ARPA.  This
will make him formally aware of the limitation although I believe he
already knows it.\.

						Sincerely yours,

						
						John McCarthy
						Professor of Computer Science
						Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

cc: Dr. J. C. R. Licklider