Claim · 1959-07 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Samuel’s ‘Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers’ (IBM Journal, July 1959) states in its abstract that enough work has been done to verify that a computer can be programmed so that it will learn to play a better game of checkers than can be played by the person who wrote the program.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers → contests → A machine can only do what it is ordered to do

Where it appears

Antecedent texts: machine intelligence before 1965 →

Claim and evidence

Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkerscontests ↓A machine can only do what it is ordered to do

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1959-07 · publication Records dated 1959 →
Role: Contesting
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Engagement: States the contrary. Reports a result contrary to the claim that a machine can do no more than its programmer specifies, without discussing the claim.

Scope and limitsThe article does not mention Lovelace or the objection; that its result is contrary to U01 is Selekoa’s reading, not a claim the article makes: a program that learns to beat its author still follows the learning rules it was given. Read in an undated later reprint that attributes the article to July 1959, whose wording was not compared with the 1959 printing. Samuel’s reply to Wiener (1960) is not recorded: only its indexed abstract could be read.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers

IBM Journal of Research and Development (reprint hosted on an MIT CSAIL personal page) · 1959-07

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“Enough work has been done to verify the fact that a computer can be programmed so that it will learn to play a better game of checkers than can be played by the person who wrote the program.”

Location in source PDF p. 1, abstract

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-04

Source details and check notes

Authors: Arthur L. Samuel
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 210a4e8a61eba7ac079a2ac54c2f81009f36310352d0e4f48bbb1d002d54e1cc). Later reprint, numbered 4.3.3 with printed pp. 535–, in an unidentified collection; it states that the paper was originally published in the IBM Journal, vol. 3, no. 3, July 1959. Scanned PDF with an OCR text layer of uneven quality; quotations avoid garbled passages.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Arthur L. Samuel, “Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers”, 1959-07.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, antecedent texts (research/prehistory). The quotation (38 words) matched a fresh retrieval of 2026-11-04 (SHA-256 210a4e8a61eb…, the file the candidate pack read). Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. The text layer reads ‘playa’; the page image reads ‘play a’. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Machine-checked. Machines found this record and checked it against its sources; no person accepted it individually. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID pre-u01-samuel-1959-contests