John McCarthy, pioneer of artificial intelligence dies aged 84

John McCarthy, one of the leading lights in the artificial intelligence sector has died aged 84. He was the creator of the language often used within the artificial intelligence industry.

McCarthy was a professor in Stanford University for four decades and according to reports he died at his home in Palo Alto.

His death has been mourned by millions of people, and Twitter received many messages on the man's life.

McCarthy coined the phrase ‘artificial intelligence' in 1955 and said “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.”

He served as a director in Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab from 1965 to 1980. He is best known for inventing the programming language Lisp, which was one of the sources for voice recognition technology, including the latest Siri, used on the iPhone 4s from Apple.

His research also included computer time sharing, which in effect has allowed the formation of ‘cloud computing' today.

Ed Feigenbaum, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford said “He could be blunt, but John was always kind and generous with his time, especially with students, and he was sharp until the end. He was always focused on the future. Always inventing, inventing, inventing.”

McCarthy won many awards over the years including the A.M. Turing Award in 1971, which is the highest recognition in computer science. He was awarded this for his work within the artificial intelligence sector.

Kitguru says: Rest In Peace.

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