A Man Who Named AI: John McCarthy and the End of the Code–Data Divide (nirmalutwani.substack.com)

This article reflects on the groundbreaking contributions of John McCarthy, who coined the term "artificial intelligence" and significantly impacted the field by blurring the lines between code and data. Prior to McCarthy's innovations, computers were limited to numerical calculations, but his work introduced the ability for machines to generate new knowledge from existing facts. This conceptual shift allowed computers to engage in logical reasoning, exemplified by the notion that knowing "Socrates is a man" and "all men are mortal" leads to the logical conclusion that "Socrates is mortal." McCarthy’s development of the Lisp programming language was pivotal in this transformation, as it allowed code to be represented as data that could be manipulated similarly to traditional data structures. The unique feature of Lisp is its lack of an intermediary step between writing code and execution, achieved through the use of the eval function. This approach necessitated the invention of garbage collection, a concept that has become integral to modern programming languages such as Java, Python, and Go. McCarthy's contributions not only advanced programming language design but also laid the groundwork for the evolution of AI systems, establishing a framework that propels ongoing developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning.