It might be a stretch to suggest that there’d be no AI without John McCarthy, but at the very least, we’d likely be discussing the concept much differently. The computer scientist, who died on Sunday at 84, is credited with coining the term “Artificial Intelligence” as part of a proposal for a Dartmouth conference on the subject. The event, held in 1956, is regarded as a watershed moment for the subject. Early the following decade, McCarthy pioneered LISP, a highly popular programming language amongst the AI development community. In 1971, he won a Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery and 20 years later was awarded National Medal of Science. A more complete obituary for McCarthy can be found in the source link below.

[Thanks, Jason]

John McCarthy, AI pioneer, dies at 84 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s more sad news out of Japan this morning, we’re afraid — Sony is reporting that former chairman Norio Ohga passed away in Tokyo yesterday from multiple organ failure. He was 81. You may not personally remember a Sony under his reign — Ohga helmed the company from 1982 to 1995 after decades of service in product planning — but Norio Ohga was arguably the man responsible for turning Sony from a high-profile analog electronics manufacturer into a digital multimedia conglomerate. He helmed the deals that formed Sony Music, paved the way for Sony Pictures and established the very same Sony Computer Entertainment that would birth the PlayStation, and it was he who pushed the optical compact disc standard that all but replaced the magnetic cassettes and diskettes that held portable media. Without him, DVDs and Blu-rays might have fallen by the wayside, and that’s another thought that brings tears to our eyes. You’ll find Ohga’s official obituary after the break.

Continue reading Norio Ohga, former Sony chairman and multimedia pioneer, dies at 81

Norio Ohga, former Sony chairman and multimedia pioneer, dies at 81 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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