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I'm trying to figure out who coined the term "machine learning". An ancillary question is from where is Arthur Samuel cited as defining the field of "machine learning" in 1959 as:

the field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed

?

You can find many, many references to this definition on the internet, but I haven't been able to track down the source. Some give it as his 1959 paper on checkers, but I don't find any such definition there.

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    $\begingroup$ Did you search Google Books? Arthur Samuel uses the phrase in The New Yorker and Office Management the same year. He is apparently also interviewed in the Daily Telegraph 21st July 1959. $\endgroup$ – Finn Årup Nielsen Jan 26 '15 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I've been going through Google Books to find the first usage of the term machine learning. Can you send a link to those New Yorker and Office Management references? When I search Google Books with the quote and restrict to that decade, I don't get any results. $\endgroup$ – robguinness Jan 27 '15 at 8:59
  • $\begingroup$ Small update: I searched the archives of The New Yorker, and I find one article with Arthur Samuel in the Aug 29, 1959 issue, but it does not contain the quote in question. Does anyone have access to archives of Office Management or Daily Telegraph from 1959? I'm afraid I don't... $\endgroup$ – robguinness Jan 27 '15 at 15:26
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    $\begingroup$ The Proceedings of the UNESCO International Conference on Information Processing from June 1959 has a chapter called "Pattern recognition and machine learning". One of the papers presented there is titled "Experiments in machine learning and thinking", which suggests the term predates that work. $\endgroup$ – rphv Jan 28 '15 at 6:14
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you! I also came across this conference before. It would be really interesting to read that paper, but I could only find it for sale in hardcopy. My earliest reference to "machine learning" is still 1953, but it is not so detailed, just a mention. $\endgroup$ – robguinness Jan 29 '15 at 9:44
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"Programming computers to learn from experience should eventually eliminate the need for much of this detailed programming effort" Samuel, A. L. (1959), “Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers” in IBM Journal of Research and Development (Volume:3, Issue: 3), p. 210

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  • $\begingroup$ That's not exactly the same as the quote above, is it? $\endgroup$ – robguinness Aug 12 '15 at 6:22
  • $\begingroup$ The quote above is an interpretation of quote written in the article. $\endgroup$ – giaco Aug 23 '17 at 9:04
  • $\begingroup$ I'm sorry, but I'm not understanding you. $\endgroup$ – robguinness Mar 14 '18 at 15:22

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