On This Day in AI History

A CHRONICLE OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE

DARTMOUTH TO DEEP LEARNING · THE PROGRAMS, PAPERS & PEOPLE · 1956–PRESENT

Welcome to On This Day A daily chronicle of artificial intelligence — the papers, programs, and people that built the field, from the 1956 Dartmouth workshop to today. Start here. Read the welcome →
December 11
Logic Theorist
System
Logic Theorist
Series
RAND / Carnegie Mellon
Venue
RAND Corporation / Carnegie Mellon
Date
December 11, 1956
Lab
RAND / Carnegie Mellon
Nickname
The Logic Theorist is presented as the first AI program
Researchers
Allen Newell
Herbert A. Simon
Cliff Shaw

The Logic Theorist is presented as the first AI program

Newell, Simon, and Shaw built the Logic Theorist, often called the first artificial intelligence program, which proved theorems from Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica. It famously found a more elegant proof for one theorem than the original. (Developed through 1955-1956; no single agreed calendar day marks its debut, so this date is approximate.)

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