OBJECT RECORD / AIM-DOC-1955-001

Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence

The project proposal that put “artificial intelligence” in its title.

CURATORIAL READING

Why it is here

The organisers proposed a two-month study for the summer of 1956. Its agenda joined language, abstraction, neural networks, creativity, and self-improvement under one research programme.

Evidence boundary

Read it as a proposal, not a victory report. The confidence, open problems, participant plans, and budget all reveal a field being organised before its outcomes were known.

PROVENANCE

Source trail

Primary object record A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence

John McCarthy archive, Stanford University · 2026-09-10

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