Every Johnson should have a Boswell, and the entire artificial intelligence field has Pamela McCorduck as its scribe. Part historian, part humorist, part raconteuse, her books romp through the history and characters of AI as both authoritative record and belles-lettres. Machines Who Think (1979, 2003) and her recent sequel This Could Be Important (2019) help understand the who, what, and why of where AI has come from.

In the second half of this interview, we talk about changes in the experience of women in computing, C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures", and the interaction between AI and the humanities, along with more tales of its founding fathers.

All that and our usual look at today's headlines in AI.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.