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

Samuel (1959) describes his studies as programming a digital computer to behave in a way that would be described as learning if done by humans or animals, and reports that a checkers program learned to play better than its programmer.

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 → discusses →

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 Checkersdiscusses ↓

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1959-07 · publication Records dated 1959 →

Scope and limitsWhat the paper says it shows; the performance claim is the author's own report. The OCR text is garbled in the introduction, so that sentence is paraphrased.

The evidence 02

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.

Paraphrase

The studies concern programming a digital computer to behave in a way which, if done by human beings or animals, would be described as involving the process of learning.

Location in source PDF p. 1, Introduction, first sentence

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 paraphrase is Selekoa’s, written from the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29; it is not a quotation and was not machine-matched. Paraphrase because the OCR layer is garbled here. 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

“a computer can be programmed so that it will learn to”

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 (11 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. 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. The concept is explicitly discussed in the document. This makes no earliest-use, invention or transmission claim.

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

Record ID th-ml-samuel-1959-description