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Birth
John McCarthy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 4, 1927. -
Received a B.S. in Mathematics
Initially, McCarthy was suspended from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) due to his absences in PE. He joined the Army and eventually came back to obtain a B.S. in mathematics. -
Ph.D. in Mathematics
After obtaining his B.S. at Caltech, he moved to Princeton University to obtain his Ph.D. in mathematics. -
Lead Dartmouth Conference
Organized and lead the founding event of artificial intelligence as a field. Essentially, it was a brainstorming session regarding "thinking machines". -
Introduces Artificial Intelligence (AI)
John McCarthy writes "Programs with Common Sense", a paper that approaches artificial intelligence in a logical manner. -
Invented Garbage Collection (GC)
A technique used for managing memory automatically; originally used to aid Lisp. -
Aided in the Development of the Earliest Time-Sharing Systems
Helped create Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), BBN Time-Sharing System, and Dartmouth Time Sharing System -
Introduced Situation Calculus
Introduced the study of dynamic systems in logic. -
Established SAIL (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)
Initiated the establishment of an artificial Intelligence laboratory at Standford University. -
Constructed Kotok-McCarthy
McCarthy and his fellow classmates designed a program on the IBM 704 (Hulking Giant) that was used to play chess against another computer in the Soviet Union. -
Refines Situation Calculus Concept
Collaborated with Hayes to refine his take on dynamic systems in logic, and the reasoning/representation behind it. -
ACM Turing Award
Given to John McCarthy for his major contributions to the field of computers. -
Kyoto Prize
Awarded the Kyoto Prize; one of Japan's highest global achievement awards. John McCarthy was recognized for his attributions in Artificial Intelligence and Computers. -
Awarded National Medal of Science (USA)
John McCarthy was recognized by the President of the United States for his contributions in Mathematical, Statistical, and Computational Sciences. -
Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov
Deep Blue (IBM Supercomputer) beats Garry Kasparov (World Chess Champion) at chess. A major leap from Kotok-McCarthy. -
AI Home Appliance
The Roomba; an autonomous vacuum cleaner, has commercially sold across the world and has introduced AIs to people's regular life. -
AI on Jeopardy
IBM's Watson took to the show Jeopardy to compete with human contestants, its performance was unmatched.
