The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (1956)
The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence brought together mathematicians, engineers, and early computer scientists to explore whether machines could simulate human learning and problem solving.
The workshop is widely cited as a founding moment for AI as a named field. For a plain-language definition of modern large language models (LLMs), see the glossary.
Why it matters
The 1956 proposal marked core themes that still shape research today: symbolic reasoning, neural nets, and creativity.