In 1958, while at MIT, McCarthy invented the programming language LISP, which has become the main language for (AI) ( ) work. He also was one of the co-founders of the first artificial intelligence laboratory at MIT and the founder of the artificial intelligence laboratory at Stanford University.

Stanford University, where McCarthy was a professor emeritus of computer science, confirmed his death in a Tuesday.

Holding a Ph.D in mathematics, McCarthy didn't take credit for inventing the field of artificial intelligence, although he is widely considered one of the founding fathers of the field and holds a significant spot in its history because of his development of the programming language used in .

Of all the high-level programming languages in use today, only Fortran is older than LISP and then only by a year.

McCarthy based his years of AI research on the premise that human intelligence can be understood and described succinctly enough that it can be taught to a machine.