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Who could use the first AI programs in the 1950s and 1960s?

Research question: What were the earliest AI programs, and who could actually run them in the 1950s and 1960s?

The records name the Logic Theorist, completed in 1956 and described as the first AI program 2, and the General Problem Solver, listed as a key early program 19. Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program in 1951 8, and Turing wrote the chess program Turochamp in 1952, but no computers were powerful enough to run it 23. The first Logic Theorist was hand-simulated, with people acting as its components from cards 57, and it was only later run on an actual computer at RAND's Santa Monica facility 10. The field was limited to those with access to programmable computers 18, but the records do not say which specific individuals or institutions could run these programs.

Checked 2026-10-19. Only documented and supported facts are used.
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Sources

[1] supported
The name 'artificial intelligence' was first used in the mid-1950s.
"Since AI depends on computers, it is a relatively new discipline: the name was first used in the mid-1950s, though a few years earlier, pioneers such as Alan Turing in Britain and Claude Shannon in the United States had worked out how to write chess-playing computer programs."
Artificial Intelligence (2019)
[2] supported
Logic Theorist, completed in 1956 by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Cliff Shaw, was the first program deliberately engineered to perform automated reasoning and has been described as the first artificial intelligence program.
"It was the first program deliberately engineered to perform automated reasoning"
Logic Theorist
[3] supported
The Logic Theorist and the General Problem Solver were among the earliest AI programs, both developed in the mid-1950s with Herbert A. Simon and Cliff Shaw contributing.
"He, Herbert A. Simon , and Cliff Shaw contributed to the Information Processing Language (1956) and two of the earliest AI programs, the Logic Theorist (1956) and the General Problem Solver (1957)."
Allen Newell
[4] supported
Alan Turing in Britain and Claude Shannon in the United States had worked out how to write chess-playing computer programs a few years before the name AI was first used.
"though a few years earlier, pioneers such as Alan Turing in Britain and Claude Shannon in the United States had worked out how to write chess-playing computer programs."
Artificial Intelligence (2019)
[5] supported
The first version of Logic Theorist was hand-simulated, with the program written onto 3x5 cards so that people acted as its components.
"The first version was hand-simulated: they wrote the program onto 3x5 cards and, as Simon recalled:"
Logic Theorist
[6] supported
AI depends on computers, which is why it is a relatively new discipline.
"Since AI depends on computers, it is a relatively new discipline"
Artificial Intelligence (2019)
[7] supported
In the hand-simulation, the researchers gave each person in a group, including Simon's family and some graduate students, one of the cards, so each became a component of the program.
"To each member of the group, we gave one of the cards, so that each one became, in effect, a component of the computer program"
Logic Theorist
[8] supported
Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program in 1951, which predates the Logic Theorist.
"Christopher Strachey also wrote a checkers program in 1951"
Allen Newell
[9] documented
In 1967, Allen Newell and his student James Moore worked on Merlin, an intelligent tutoring system built to teach graduate artificial intelligence.
"In 1967, Newell and his student, James Moore, had actually worked on developing an intelligent tutoring system, Merlin, fittingly to teach graduate artificial intelligence (Moore & Newell, 1974)."
The Intertwined Histories of Artificial Intelligence and Education (2022)
[10] supported
Only later was Logic Theorist run on an actual computer, when Cliff Shaw got it running on the computer at RAND's Santa Monica facility.
"Eventually Shaw was able to run the program on the computer at RAND's Santa Monica facility."
Logic Theorist
[11] supported
The Logic Theorist was presented at the 1956 Dartmouth conference, an informal gathering of researchers interested in simulating intelligence with machines, which is now widely considered the birth of artificial intelligence.
"They presented the program at the Dartmouth conference of 1956, an informal gathering of researchers who were interested in simulating intelligence with machines."
Allen Newell
[12] supported
The Merlin project aimed to make it easy to build and experiment with small, laboratory-sized AI programs, and it grew into an effort to build a program that could understand AI itself.
"The task was to make it easy to construct and play with simple, laboratory- sized instances of artificial intelligence programs."
The Intertwined Histories of Artificial Intelligence and Education (2022)
[13] supported
The introduction names Dartmouth in 1956 and Alan Turing in 1950 as conventional origin points for AI, which the document says it moves beyond. It does not identify any specific early programs or who could run them.
"AI was invented at Dartmouth in the summer of 1956, or by Alan Turing in 1950"
Histories of artificial intelligence: a genealogy of power (2023)
[14] supported
Logic Theorist proved 38 of the first 52 theorems in chapter 2 of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica.
"Logic Theorist soon proved 38 of the first 52 theorems in chapter 2 of the Principia Mathematica"
Logic Theorist
[15] supported
The document names Logic Theorist and General Problem Solver (GPS) as early programs developed by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon.
"Newell and Simon's Logic Theorist "LT" and general problem solver "GPS" and its Logical Dimensions (2025)"
برنامجا مُنظر المنطق Logic Theorist و حل المشكلات العامة general problem solver عند آلن نيويل و هربرت سيمون وأبعادهما المنطقيةNewell and Simon's Logic Theorist "LT" and general problem solver "GPS" and its Logical Dimensions (2025)
[16] supported
Artificial intelligence was named by John McCarthy and established as a scientific discipline at the Dartmouth conference.
"lors de la conférence de Dartmouth en 1956"
Histoire de l'intelligence artificielle
[17] supported
Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts published a founding article on neurons, an early step toward artificial neural networks.
"Warren McCulloch et Walter Pitts publient un article fondateur sur les neurones"
Chronologie de l'intelligence artificielle
[18] supported
The field took off after World War II, once programmable computers had been invented, which limited early AI work to those who had access to such machines.
"Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et l'invention des ordinateurs programmables, l'IA prend son essor."
Histoire de l'intelligence artificielle
[19] supported
The General Problem Solver is listed in the document as one of the key early AI programs in its history section.
"General Problem Solver (1959)"
Chronologie de l'intelligence artificielle
[20] supported
The ARPA/IPTO director Licklider said his agency should fund people rather than projects, letting researchers pursue any line of inquiry that interested them.
"financer des personnes, pas des projets"
Histoire de l'intelligence artificielle
[21] supported
This funding approach created a climate of total freedom at MIT, which gave birth to hacker culture.
"Cela crée une atmosphère de liberté totale au MIT qui donne ainsi naissance à la culture hacker"
Histoire de l'intelligence artificielle
[22] supported
One of the first applications to use the term artificial intelligence was the Logic Theorist system, developed by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon.
"One of the first applications to use the term artificial intelligence was the Logic Theor ist system developed by Allen Newell , Cliff Shaw , and Herbert Simon in 1956."
Logic in computer science
[23] supported
In 1952 Turing wrote the chess program Turochamp, but no computers were powerful enough to run it.
"1952 schrieb er das Schachprogramm Turochamp . Da es keine Computer mit ausreichender Leistung gab, um es auszuführen"
Alan Turing
[24] supported
In his 1950 paper 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence', Turing took up the problem of artificial intelligence and proposed the Turing test as a criterion for whether a machine can think like a human.
"In Computing machinery and intelligence ( Mind , Oktober 1950) griff Turing die Problematik der künstlichen Intelligenz auf und schlug den Turing-Test als Kriterium vor, ob eine Maschine dem Menschen vergleichbar denkfähig ist."
Alan Turing
[25] supported
Early on, researchers realized that analyzing logical systems could be significantly aided by computers.
"It was realized early on that this kind of analysis could be significantly aided by the use of computers."
Logic in computer science
[26] supported
At Manchester, Turing worked on the software for the Manchester Mark I, one of the first real computers.
"Hier arbeitete er an der Software für einen der ersten echten Computer, den Manchester Mark I"
Alan Turing
[27] supported
From the beginning of the AI field, automating logical inference was seen as having great potential for solving problems and drawing conclusions from facts.
"From the beginning of the field it was realized that technology to automate logical inferences could have great potential to solve problems and draw conclusions from facts."
Logic in computer science