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\F5\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F2







							March 22. 1974



Dr. Vladimir Slamecka, Director
School of Information and Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332

Dear Dr. Slamecka:

\J	This is to accept your invitation to the roundtable.  Either date is
acceptable to me.

	I should warn you that I have considerable reservations about having NSF
"guide research in the information sciences."  My present opinion is that NSF should
support proposals on the basis of the qualifications of the proposers and an
\F1ad hoc\F2 evaluation of the goals of the proposed research.  I do not believe
decisions should be made on the basis of the conformity of the research with a plan
proposed by a group of panelists, however distinguished.  Some exception to this
can be made for applied research in support of specific applied objectives.

	I would  be grateful for  any documents  which would help  me
make  up my  mind about whether  or not  there is something  to worry
about in NSF's plan for guiding research, also for any preliminary documents which are
relevant to the meeting.\.


							Sincerely yours,
			


							John McCarthy
							Professor of Computer Science
							Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory