<html class="apple-mail-supports-explicit-dark-mode"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr">yep: neural networks ascended, pushed symbols out of the way, and then symbols came back relabeled as harnesses, loops code interpreters, and tools.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">neurosymbolic AI, the hybrid of the two approaches, clearly beat either of the two alternatives on their own.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">claude code, biggest recent advance, shows that pretty clearly, when you look under the hood.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">gary</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Aug 19, 2026, at 10:16 AM, Stephen José Hanson <jose@rubic.rutgers.edu> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<p>Yes, historically this was an important meeting --and indeed the term AI was coined by John McCarthy who with several others put together the 1955 meeting; McCarthy also invented LISP after this meeting. Part of the AI meeting at DM was political. McCarthy
deliberately chose "Artificial Intelligence" partly to distance the new effort from Wiener's cybernetics and the neural network tradition. Which was thematic in the MACY meetings.. which ended in 1953--2 years before the "AI" meeting. McCarthy wanted to stake
out a separate field with a symbolic/logical emphasis (in contrast to McCulloch and Pitts). So the naming wasn't just descriptive; it was a bit of a territorial move that arguably sidelined neural networks for decades until the connectionist revival in the
1980s (sorry Juergen). And the more recent revolution associated with DL and LLMs more specifically. In the 1970s, this fueled the long term debate in Cognitive Science on Symbols/Rules vs Vectors/NN. </p>
<p>Well at least we know how that turned out.</p>
<p>Stephen</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/17/26 13:30, Terry Sejnowski wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:c1b173b5-fc16-4849-b898-117942ca6063@snl.salk.edu">
Jean-Marc -<br>
<br>
I was there and gave a talk, the only one on neural networks. I learned a lot from the other speakers.<br>
<br>
I just listened to the questions at the end of my talk. I pretty much predicted what was going to happen in AI and thought it would take 50 years. I was wrong, it took less than 20 years.<br>
<br>
One of the questions at the end was about intelligent aliens who appear and don't have human brains.<br>
This was a set piece in my recent book on ChatGPT and the Future of AI, where ChatGPT is the alien.<br>
<br>
I gave my version of that meeting in my first book on the Deep Learning Revolution. Every talk that reported progress did so because they had enough data to analyze, including Gene Charniak who was trying to parse sentences and Takeo Kanade working on computer
vision (These two talks are not included in the list). At the end Marvin Minsky accused them for just working on applications, not real AI.<br>
<br>
Terry<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/17/2026 9:18 AM, Fellous, Jean-Marc wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">In case you did not see this: Some amazing lectures and (now historical) perspectives… the most interesting parts are when they tried and predicted the future of AI!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Connectionists
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:connectionists-bounces@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu" moz-do-not-send="true">
<connectionists-bounces@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu></a> <b>On Behalf Of </b>George Cybenko<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, August 17, 2026 6:00 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:connectionists@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu" moz-do-not-send="true">
connectionists@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Connectionists: AI@50 videos...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2006, we held a 50th anniversary conference at Dartmouth to commemorate<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the historic 1956 meeting that coined the term "artificial intelligence." At that time,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">five of the surviving original participants attended. Today they are all gone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I just recently posted videos of the talks from the AI@50 meeting at<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/sites.dartmouth.edu/cybenko/dartmouth-ai50-videos/__;!!Mih3wA!HX5M154b9l4fIHZdxakK00FZ4H1IPqVHrV_pC-lh-4XwoZ6CvDp7SyXZ-ObDk5oWYIct3ux47KDlf3KvyIoMq7VLCwxY0JhC$" originalsrc="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/sites.dartmouth.edu/cybenko/dartmouth-ai50-videos/__;!!Mih3wA!HX5M154b9l4fIHZdxakK00FZ4H1IPqVHrV_pC-lh-4XwoZ6CvDp7SyXZ-ObDk5oWYIct3ux47KDlf3KvyIoMq7VLCwxY0JhC$" moz-do-not-send="true">https://sites.dartmouth.edu/cybenko/dartmouth-ai50-videos/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">INobody foresaw what is happening in AI today and in fact,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">there were several digs against neural networks etc. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Regards<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">George Cybenko<o:p></o:p></p>
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<pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">George Cybenko, Dorothy and Walter Gramm Professor of Engineering<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Dartmouth College, 8000 Cummings Hall, Hanover NH 03755 USA<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">email: <a href="mailto:gvc@dartmouth.edu" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">gvc@dartmouth.edu</a><o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">FAX: 603 646-9024<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Cell: 603 369-1133<o:p></o:p></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Assistant: <span style="color:black">Ellen Wirta, 603 646-9672, </span><a href="mailto:Ellen.K.Wirta@Dartmouth.edu" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">Ellen.K.Wirta@Dartmouth.edu</a></span><o:p></o:p></pre>
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