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\'3;↓Q\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\F3\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY\←L\-R\/'7;\+R\→.\→S   Telephone:
COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT\←S\→.415-497-4430
\F0\C3 December 1974

Jack E. Goldman
Senior Vice President
XEROX Corporation
Stamford, Connecticut 06904

Dear Dr. Goldman:

\J	The enclosed report lists some comments resulting from my participation
in the three day technical review of Xerox PARC.  I am somewhat unsatisfied
with what I have written, because I have not had time to completely sort
out my impressions.  Moreover, I find that I would have to go back and
ask a lot of questions in order to clarify what projects are going in what
directions.  However, the following impressions are quite clear and I hope
they will be useful to you:

	1. Xerox PARC is a very talented laboratory in both of the Systems
Science and the Computer Science Laboratories.  To be specific, you have
done better in recruiting computer scientists than IBM, BBN, or Bell Labs.

	2. The Systems Science Lab projects are likely to achieve their
technical goals, but they are not all so likely to achieve scientific
discoveries or to contribute to the development of products.

	3. The Computer Science Lab is stronger scientifically, and almost
all of its projects are likely to be scientific successes - they will
mainly be the individual successes of the scientists involved rather than
the results of an integrated research program.  However, the individuals
concerned have worthwhile goals, so this fact may not be bad.

	4. The scientific leadership of the laboratories is not as strong
as the working level, either from the point of view of focussing the work
scientifically or towards benefiting Xerox commercially.  I have no
suggestions on how to improve this situation, and it seems to me that none
of the above-mentioned competitors are in better shape.
The problem  seems especially acute in the system sciences area.

	I had no expenses in connection with the technical review.\.

\←L\→S\←R\-L\/'2;\+L\→L
Sincerely yours,



John McCarthy
Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Computer Science Department
\←S\→L

p.s.  I will be glad to answer any questions either by phone or mail.

JMC:pw
goldma.le1[2,jmc]:SU-AI