John McCarthy is a prominent figure in the history of artificial intelligence, and his work was instrumental in the development of this field. While it’s true that the 1940s marked the beginning of modern computing with the creation of the ENIAC computer in 1945, AI was still in its early stages, and its true heyday came in the subsequent decades. McCarthy made significant contributions, but his most influential work was primarily developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the 1950s, McCarthy was one of the pioneers attempting to mimic human intelligence by creating computer programs capable of reasoning and learning in a manner similar to humans. His most notable work during this period was the creation of the LISP programming language in 1958, which became an essential tool for AI research. LISP allowed researchers to express concepts more naturally and develop algorithms capable of performing reasoning tasks.

In 1956, McCarthy was one of the organizers of the famous research workshop at Dartmouth College, which marked the official beginning of the field of artificial intelligence. While the concrete results of this workshop were limited, it laid the groundwork for future research in the field and helped solidify AI as a legitimate research discipline.

In the 1960s, McCarthy continued to work on AI, developing the concept of «weak AI» and «strong AI.» Weak AI refers to systems that can perform specific tasks, such as playing chess, while strong AI involves creating a machine with the ability to reason and understand in a manner similar to humans. This distinction remains relevant in today’s discussions about AI.

Although his work in the 1940s didn’t focus on AI per se, John McCarthy was a pioneer in laying the theoretical and technical foundations that eventually allowed for the development of artificial intelligence in the subsequent decades. His legacy in AI and his contribution to the creation of LISP remain fundamental in the history of computing and artificial intelligence.