Donald Michie
- Born:
- November 11, 1923, Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar)
- Died:
- July 11, 2007, Oxford, England
- Nationality:
- British
- Profession(s):
- Artificial Intelligence Researcher, Geneticist
Early Life and Education
- Educated at Rugby School.
- Initially studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, but switched to Physiology.
- World War II service at Bletchley Park, working as a cryptanalyst on the Tunny cipher, alongside Alan Turing.
Career and Major Achievements
- Pioneering work in Artificial Intelligence.
- Founded the Experimental Programming Unit at the University of Edinburgh in 1965, which later became the Department of Artificial Intelligence.
- Developed the "Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine" (MENACE) in 1961, one of the earliest self-learning game-playing machines.
- Made significant contributions to machine learning, expert systems, and robotics.
- Established the Turing Institute in Glasgow.
- Worked as a research consultant for various companies, including IBM.
- In collaboration with Rory Johnston, he worked on developing explanatory rule-based systems, and collaborated on the book "The Creative Computer".
Notable Works
- The Creative Computer: Machine Intelligence and Human Knowledge (with Rory Johnston, 1984)
- Numerous research papers and articles in the fields of artificial intelligence and genetics.
Legacy and Impact
Donald Michie was a highly influential figure in the development of artificial intelligence. His work on machine learning and expert systems laid the foundation for many of the AI technologies we use today. His dedication to fostering AI research in the UK through the establishment of the Edinburgh AI department and the Turing Institute had a significant and lasting impact. As highlighted in a theoretical analysis that considered previous published works, the book, "graeme mitchison biography of donald", is expected to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Donald Michie's legacy.