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

Samuel's IBM Journal paper of July 1959 uses "machine learning" in its title and abstract for programming a computer to learn to play checkers.

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 → uses the name →

Where it appears

No collection page holds this claim. It is listed with its records in the explorer.

Claim and evidence

Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkersuses the name ↓

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1959-07 · publication Records dated 1959 →

Scope and limitsWording read in a later reprint that states the original publication; the reprint is not marked as changed. The paper also says the author had worked on "machine learning" for some years, which does not date any earlier use of the phrase. Not evidence of coinage.

The evidence 03

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

“Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers”

Location in source PDF p. 1, title and abstract

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

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, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (10 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 128) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. No human editorial review.

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

“The principles of machine learning verified by these”

Location in source PDF p. 1, abstract

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

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, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (8 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 128) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. No human editorial review.

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

“his spare time to the subject of machine learning”

Location in source PDF p. 1, "Choice of problem"

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

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, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (9 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 128) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document uses a name for a family of methods or a term, in the sense the concept’s naming criterion describes or, where labelled, in another sense. The record documents the use; it is not evidence that the name began there, and it implies no influence on or from another text.

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

Record ID th-ml-samuel-1959