The word they invented

McCarthy coined the phrase at Dartmouth. Before 1956, there was no word for this field.

"Artificial intelligence"

Two words that, combined, are now everywhere: in headlines, in legislation, in job titles, in arguments at dinner tables. The word is so familiar it has stopped feeling like a choice.

But it was a choice. McCarthy picked it deliberately, in part to distinguish the work from an earlier field called "cybernetics." He wanted a clean start.

The name shaped expectations. Intelligence is what humans have. Artificial intelligence is what machines might have. The ambition was built into the label.