 The years after the Dartmouth conference were an era of discovery , of sprinting across new ground . The programs that were developed during this time were , to most people , simply " astonishing " : computers were solving algebra word problems , proving theorems in geometry and learning to speak English . Few at the time would have believed that such " intelligent " behavior by machines was possible at all . Researchers expressed an intense optimism in private and in print , predicting that a fully intelligent machine would be built in less than 20 years . Government agencies like <unk> poured money into the new field . 
