Douglas B. Lenat
Computer scientist and AI pioneer
Douglas Bruce Lenat (September 13, 1950 – August 31, 2023) was an American computer scientist and researcher in artificial intelligence who was the founder and CEO of Cycorp, Inc. in Austin, Texas.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Douglas B. Lenat (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Sep 13, 1950, died Aug 31, 2023.1
About
Lenat was awarded the biannual IJCAI Computers and Thought Award in 1976 for creating the machine-learning program AM. He has worked on (symbolic, not statistical) machine learning (with his AM and Eurisko programs), knowledge representation, "cognitive economy", blackboard systems, and what he dubbed in 1984 "ontological engineering" (with his Cyc program at MCC and, since 1994, at Cycorp). He has also worked in military simulations, and numerous projects for the US government, military, intelligence, and scientific organizations. In 1980, he published a critique of conventional random-mutation Darwinism. He authored a series of articles in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence exploring the nature of heuristic rules.
Lenat was one of the original Fellows of the AAAI, and is the only individual to have served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of both Microsoft and Apple. He was a Fellow of the AAAS, AAAI, and Cognitive Science Society, and an editor of the J. Automated Reasoning, J. Learning Sciences, and J. Applied Ontology. He was one of the founders of TTI/Vanguard in 1991 and member of its advisory board. He was named one of the Wired 25.
From Wikipedia’s article on Douglas B. Lenat, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
- Date not recordedUniversity of Pennsylvania3
- Date not recordedStanford University Doctor of Philosophy3
Lenat was born in Philadelphia, United States, on September 13, 1950. When he was 5, the family moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where his father, Nathan Lenat, owned a bottling plant. His father died when he was 13 and the family then returned to Pennsylvania, where he attended Cheltenham High School. His after-school job was cleaning rat cages and goose pens at Beaver College which motivated him to learn programming as a better occupation.
He attended the University of Pennsylvania, supporting himself by programming, including the design and development of a natural language interface for a United States Navy online operations manual. He graduated with bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Physics, and a master's degree in Applied Mathematics, all in 1972.
Lenat was a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Stanford University, where his published research included automatic program synthesis from input/output pairs and from natural language clarification dialogues.
From Wikipedia’s article on Douglas B. Lenat (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: author, physicist, artificial intelligence researcher, mathematician, computer scientist.6
Known for: Cyc.7
Personal life
Lenat was married to Merle Baruch, with whom he had a daughter; they divorced and he later married Cycorp business manager Mary Shepherd. He died of bile duct cancer on August 31, 2023, at the age of 72.
From Wikipedia’s article on Douglas B. Lenat (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataDouglas B. Lenat on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaDouglas B. Lenat on Wikipedia
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- 9Wikidataplace of birth, as reported
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- 11Wikidataplace of death, as reported
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- 14Wikidataaward, as reported
- 15Wikidataaward, as reported
- 16WikidataCycorp, Founder
- 17Wikimedia CommonsDouglas B. Lenat photo by LordRedthorn, CC BY-SA 4.0