Herbert Simon

Contributions to artificial intelligence Simon was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, creating with Allen Newell the Logic Theory Machine (1956) and the General Problem Solver (GPS) (1957) programs. GPS was possibly the first method of separating problem solving strategy from information about particular problems. Both programs were developed using the Information Processing Language (IPL) (1956) developed by Newell, Cliff Shaw and Simon. Donald Knuth mentions the development of list processing in IPL with the linked list originally called "NSS memory" for its inventors.[20] In 1957, Simon predicted that computer chess would surpass human chess abilities within "10 years" when, in reality, that transition took about 40 years.[21] In the early 1960s Simon wrote a paper responding to a claim by the psychologist Ulric Neisser that machines might be able to replicate 'cold cognition', e.g. processes like reasoning, planning, perceiving, and deciding, but could not replicate 'hot cognition', including desiring, feeling pain or pleasure, and having emotions. Simon's paper was eventually published in 1967.[22] It was ignored by the AI research community for some years, but later became very influential e.g. indirectly through the work of Sloman and Picard on emotions. Simon also collaborated with James G. March on several works in organization theory. With Allen Newell, Simon developed a theory for the simulation of human problem solving behavior using production rules.[23] The study of human problem solving required new kinds of human measurements and, with Anders Ericsson, Simon developed the experimental technique of verbal protocol analysis.[24] Simon was interested in the role of knowledge in expertise. He said that to become an expert required about 10 years of experience and he and colleagues estimated that expertise was the result of learning roughly 50,000 chunks of information. A chess expert was said to have learned about 50,000 chunks or chess position patterns.[25] Simon was also interested in how humans learn and, with Edward Feigenbaum, he developed the EPAM (Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer) theory, one of the first theories of learning to be implemented as a computer program. EPAM was able to explain a large number of phenomena in the field of verbal learning.[26] Later versions of the model were applied to concept formation and the acquisition of expertise. He was awarded ACM's A.M. Turing Award along with Allen Newell in 1975. "In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. (Cliff) Shaw at the RAND Corporation, and subsequentially with numerous faculty and student colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, they have made basic contributions to artificial intelligence, the psychology of human cognition, and list processing."

John McCarthy
John McCarthy is known to be the Father of Artificial Intelligence. He was the first person to coin the phrase "Artificial Intelligence" back in 1956. His belief that computers can reason like humans and his work to see that happen has done much to strengthen the development of AI. He is best known as the inventor of the first non-procedural programming language. He named his language LISP (for List Processing) because he found it efficient to use a data structure called a list to handle both a program's code and its data. Even today, it is still the favored programming language for Artificial Intelligence research.

Notable Contributions Mid-1950s: In asking for project funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, John McCarthy coined the term Artificial Intelligence to describe his theory that a machine could seem to have intelligent thought. 1956: He used this grant while he was teaching at Dartmouth to sponsor the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. This conference wasnt as productive as McCarthy had hoped. It was, however, the first group attempt to create intelligent machinery and definitively marked AI to be a separate field of study. Late 1950s: In order to create a computer that played games and accomplished other intelligent tasks, John McCarthy developed the programming language LISP. LISP manipulates symbols, rather than using arithmetic on numbers like most languages. It lists instructions, using and and or statements to help the computer reach logical deductions. LISP and its variations like Scheme are still commonly used in expert and natural language systems. Late 1980s: Microcomputers became powerful enough to run LISP. Prior to this, LISP applications could only have been run on special LISP computers. This opened the language to be used by everyone. 2006: LISP is the second oldest programming language still in use (the oldest being FORTRAN) Other Accomplishments John McCarthy has won the ACM's A. M. Turing Award in 1971 and the IEEE Computer Society's Pioneer Award in 1985. McCarthy has published the book Formalizing Common Sense along with hundreds of papers relating to computers and Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering as well as the National Academy of Science.

Marvin Minsky
Most people consider Marvin Minsky to be one of the Fathers of modern Artificial Intelligence. His inventions, writings, and theories have been a powerful voice in the development of AI from its early years to today. Notable Contributions 1951: Built the very first neural network simulator. 1955: Invented a confocal scanning microscope, which zooms in on objects to create high-contrast 3D images 1975: Invented the concept of frames, which help computers find data with which they can make basic intelligent decisions 1985: Published The Society of Mind, which pioneers a theory that combines child psychology and Artificial Intelligence research. Basically, it states that intelligence does not come from any one source,

but several forces interacting with each other. This allows an intelligent being to do different things. It also implies that there is no key to finding the source of intelligence, as there is no specific source. Other Accomplishments Marvin Minsky has won 14 awards related to his work in AI. He holds 7 patents, including one for a hydraulic robotic arm he made for the Boston Museum of Science and a musical synthesizer. Minsky has written or collaborated on 8 books, including a science fiction thriller entitled The Turing Option, which deals with futuristic super intelligent robots. He has also written a computer science textbook and several manuscripts on AI theories. http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01158/minsky.html

Alan Turing
Alan Turing was a leader in Artificial Intelligence before the human race could fathom computers as we know them today. His famed Turing Test has been the standard for measuring Artificial Intelligence for the past 50 years. He is often referred to as the father of computer science. Notable Contributions 1936: Turing published a paper entitled "On Computable Numbers" which defined the concept of a Turing Machine, a way to determine if a mathematical or real-life problem was solvable. It basically states that if a problem can be solved by any computer, it can be solved by a theoretical machine that can perform certain precisely defined operations. 1939: He worked full-time at the wartime cryptanalytic headquarters. Turing actually cracked the Enigma cypher at the end of the year, but he needed more material captured by the Navy before full-scale decoding began in 1941. 1945: Alan Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory in London, where he helped to design and construct the Automatic Computing Engine, which was essentially a large computer. 1950: He developed the Turing Test to determine whether a machine possessed intelligence. 1952: Turing published a paper on the development of living organisms. Other Accomplishments Turing won a Smiths Prize for work in probability theory in 1936. In 1945, Turing was awarded the O.B.E. for his vital contribution to the war effort. In 1951, Turing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01158/minsky.html