Oral history interview with John McCarthy

Abstract

McCarthy begins this interview with a discussion of the initial establishment and development of time-sharing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the role he played in it. He then describes his subsequent move to Stanford in 1962 and the beginnings of his work in artificial intelligence (AI) funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency. This work developed in two general directions: logic-based AI (LISP) and robotics.

In the main section of the interview McCarthy discusses his view of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) role in the support of AI research in the U.S. in general and at Stanford in particular. He specifically addresses the following issues: the relative importance of DARPA funding in comparison to other public and private sources, requirements and procedures undertaken to obtain DARPA funds, and changes over time in levels of support and requirements from DARPA. McCarthy concludes this interview with a brief description of the AI Laboratory at Stanford and his continued work on AI (funded by DARPA) with the Formal Reasoning Group.