# Dartmouth Workshop 1956 The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was a 1956 workshop at Dartmouth College widely considered the founding event of artificial intelligence as a field, co-organized by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon. The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was a 1956 summer workshop held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. It is widely considered to be the founding event of [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) as a field, often referred to as the "Constitutional Convention of AI." The project's four organizers, [Claude Shannon](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/claude-shannon), [John McCarthy](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/john-mccarthy), Nathaniel Rochester, and [Marvin Minsky](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/marvin-minsky), are regarded as some of the founding fathers of AI. The workshop lasted approximately six to eight weeks and consisted largely of brainstorming sessions rather than directed research. ## Background In the early 1950s, the field of "thinking machines" went by various names, including cybernetics, automata theory, and complex information processing. This variety of names reflected differing conceptual orientations. In 1955, John McCarthy, then a young Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Dartmouth College, decided to organize a group to clarify and develop ideas about thinking machines. He chose the name "Artificial Intelligence" for the new field, partly for its neutrality, avoiding a focus on narrow automata theory and the analog feedback emphasis of cybernetics, as well as potential conflicts with Norbert Wiener. In early 1955, McCarthy approached the Rockefeller Foundation to request funding for a summer seminar at Dartmouth for about 10 participants. In June, he and Claude Shannon met with Robert Morison, Director of Biological and Medical Research, to discuss the idea, though Morison was unsure whether money would be available for such a visionary project. On September 2, 1955, the project was formally proposed by McCarthy, Minsky, Rochester, and Shannon. The proposal is credited with introducing the term "artificial intelligence." ## Proposal and Planning The proposal stated: "We propose that a 2-month, 10-man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves." The proposal went on to discuss computers, natural language processing, [neural networks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network), theory of computation, abstraction, and creativity, areas that remain relevant to AI research today. On May 26, 1956, McCarthy notified Morison of the planned 11 attendees. For the full period, the list included Marvin Minsky, Julian Bigelow, D.M. Mackay, Ray Solomonoff, John Holland, and McCarthy himself. For four weeks, Claude Shannon, Nathaniel Rochester, and Oliver Selfridge were expected. Allen Newell and Herbert Simon were scheduled for the first two weeks. McCarthy noted, "we will concentrate on a problem of devising a way of programming a calculator to form concepts and to form generalizations. This of course is subject to change when the group gets together." ## Participants and Dates The actual participants came at different times, mostly for much shorter periods than originally planned. Trenchard More replaced Rochester for three weeks, while MacKay and Holland did not attend. Around June 18, 1956, the earliest participants arrived at the Dartmouth campus, with Ray Solomonoff and Marvin Minsky staying in professors' apartments, while most others stayed at the Hanover Inn. The workshop is usually said to have run for six weeks, but Solomonoff's notes indicate it ran for roughly eight weeks, from about June 18 to August 17. Solomonoff's notes list 20 participants, including Ray Solomonoff, Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Claude Shannon, Trenchard More, Nat Rochester, Oliver Selfridge, Julian Bigelow, W. Ross Ashby, W.S. McCulloch, Abraham Robinson, Tom Etter, John Nash, David Sayre, Arthur Samuel, Kenneth R. Shoulders, Alex Bernstein, Herbert Simon, and Allen Newell. Ray Solomonoff, Marvin Minsky, and John McCarthy were the only three who stayed for the full time. From three to about eight people would attend the daily sessions. ## Event and Aftermath The group had the entire top floor of the Dartmouth Math Department to themselves. Most weekdays, they met in the main math classroom where someone might lead a discussion focusing on his ideas, or more frequently, a general discussion would be held. It was not a directed group research project; discussions covered many topics. Several directions are considered to have been initiated or encouraged by the workshop, including the rise of symbolic methods, systems focused on limited domains (early [expert systems](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/expert-system)), and deductive systems versus inductive systems. One participant, Arthur Samuel, said, "It was very interesting, very stimulating, very exciting." The workshop's legacy is profound. It established artificial intelligence as a distinct discipline, bringing together researchers who would go on to shape the field for decades. The term "artificial intelligence" itself gained currency from this event. While the workshop did not produce immediate breakthroughs, it set the stage for subsequent developments in [machine learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning), symbolic reasoning, and other areas. The Dartmouth Workshop remains a landmark event, symbolizing the formal beginning of AI as a field of study. Its influence can be traced through the work of its participants and the institutions they built, such as the [MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mit-csail) and [Stanford AI Lab](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/stanford-ai-lab). --- Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/dartmouth-workshop-1956 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Last updated: 2026-09-09T02:01:54.279587+00:00