The years after the Dartmouth conference was an era of discovery , of sprinting across new ground . The programs that was developed during this time was , to most people , simply " astonishing " : computers was 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 ARPA poured money into the new field .