Thursday, December 4, 2008

AI innovator Selfridge dies at 82

By Galen Moore

Artificial intelligence pioneer Oliver G. Selfridge died on Wednesday in Boston, the New York Times obituary page reported Thursday. The long-time Massachusetts resident was credited with helping found the field of artificial intelligence.

Selfridge was 82 years old, the Times reported. His death was caused by injuries suffered in a fall on Sunday at his home in Belmont.

In the 1950s, Selfridge developed the concept of “intelligent agents” — software programs capable of observing their environment and learning through practice. In a 1958 paper, “Pandemonium: A Paradigm for Learning,” Selfridge proposed that machines could recognize patterns using a collection of small components called “demons.” Selfridge’s ideas were among the fundamental principles in the emerging science of machine learning.

Additionally, Selfridge and four other colleagues helped organize a 1956 conference at Dartmouth College that helped found the field of artificial intelligence. Later in life, Selfridge continued to put out scholarly publications — but he also wrote books for children, including the titles, “Fingers Come in Fives,” and “All about Mud.” At his death he was working on a series of children’s books related to arithmetic.

After graduating from MIT, Selfridge worked on early computing research projects at Lincoln Laboratory. He also worked at ARPANET creator Bolt, Beranek & Newman, now known as BBN Technologies, and in 1983 he was named chief scientist for the telecommunications company GTE.