John McCarthy Video | Book Interviews

John McCarthy (September 4, 1927 – October 24, 2011) was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He invented the term "artificial intelligence" (AI), developed the Lisp programming language family, significantly influenced the design of the ALGOL programming language, popularized timesharing, and was very influential in the early development of AI. McCarthy received many accolades and honors, including the Turing Award for his contributions to the topic of AI, the United States National Medal of Science, and the Kyoto Prize. John McCarthy was born in Boston,... MORE

John McCarthy (September 4, 1927 – October 24, 2011) was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He invented the term "artificial intelligence" (AI), developed the Lisp programming language family, significantly influenced the design of the ALGOL programming language, popularized timesharing, and was very influential in the early development of AI. McCarthy received many accolades and honors, including the Turing Award for his contributions to the topic of AI, the United States National Medal of Science, and the Kyoto Prize. John McCarthy was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 4, 1927 to an Irish immigrant father and a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant mother, John Patrick and Ida Glatt McCarthy. The family was obliged to relocate frequently during the Great Depression, until McCarthy's father found work as an organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in Los Angeles, California. McCarthy was exceptionally intelligent, and graduated from Belmont High School two years early. He showed an early aptitude for mathematics; during his teens he taught himself college mathematics by studying the textbooks used at the nearby California Institute of Technology LESS