RAND Corporation
In plain wordsAn American research organization, long funded mainly by the US government, where early AI programs were written and which now advises governments on AI and security.
A nonprofit policy research organization, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, that studies defense, national security and public policy, mostly under government contracts. In the 1950s it was a cradle of computing and AI: Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and J. C. Shaw wrote the Logic TheoristLogic Theorist, prop. n.: A 1956 computer program that proved theorems from a classic logic textbook by searching cleverly rather than trying every possibility. Many historians count it as the first AI program. (1956) and developed the General Problem SolverGeneral Problem Solver, prop. n.: A 1950s program meant to solve any well-defined puzzle by repeatedly comparing where it was with where it wanted to be and choosing steps that closed the gap. in collaboration with RAND, while its researchers advanced game theory, linear programming and systems analysis. In 1965 it published Hubert Dreyfus's critique 'Alchemy and Artificial Intelligence', the starting point of his influential case against classical AI. Since 2023 its studies of AI and national security — including red-team tests of whether language models help plan biological attacks, guidance on securing model weights against theft, and analyses of compute and export controls — have informed US policy.
Origin
Founded in 1946 as Project RAND (from 'research and development'), a US Army Air Forces program run by the Douglas Aircraft Company, and incorporated as the independent nonprofit RAND Corporation in 1948. Jason Matheny, founding director of Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging TechnologyCenter for Security and Emerging Technology, prop. n.: A Georgetown University think tank in Washington, D.C., whose researchers advise the US government on AI and national security, paying special attention to China and to the chip supply chain., became its chief executive in 2022.
Related
- Logic TheoristLogic Theorist, prop. n.: A 1956 computer program that proved theorems from a classic logic textbook by searching cleverly rather than trying every possibility. Many historians count it as the first AI program.
- General Problem SolverGeneral Problem Solver, prop. n.: A 1950s program meant to solve any well-defined puzzle by repeatedly comparing where it was with where it wanted to be and choosing steps that closed the gap.
- Hubert DreyfusHubert Dreyfus, prop. n.: An American philosopher who argued from the 1960s that computers following explicit rules could never match human intelligence, which rests on bodily, intuitive know-how.
- Herbert A. SimonHerbert A. Simon, prop. n.: An American scientist of decision-making who, with Allen Newell, wrote some of the first AI programs and argued that minds and computers both think by manipulating symbols.
- Allen NewellAllen Newell, prop. n.: An American computer scientist who, with Herbert Simon, wrote early AI programs that solved problems the way people do, and who sought a single theory of how the mind works.
- Center for Security and Emerging TechnologyCenter for Security and Emerging Technology, prop. n.: A Georgetown University think tank in Washington, D.C., whose researchers advise the US government on AI and national security, paying special attention to China and to the chip supply chain.