# Lighthill Report **Domain:** Artificial Intelligence / Research Policy / United Kingdom **Doc Type:** Historical Report Node **Maturity:** Historical ## Definition The **Lighthill Report** was James Lighthill's 1973 survey of artificial intelligence commissioned by Britain's Science Research Council. ## Argument The report partitioned AI into advanced automation, central-nervous-system research and robot-building work intended to bridge the two. It expressed strong skepticism about the bridging category, particularly where [[wiki/Combinatorial Explosion|combinatorial explosion]] prevented methods from scaling. ## Institutional Consequence The report contributed to a loss of institutional confidence and reduced support for British AI research, although historians continue to qualify the simplicity of any single-cause account. ## Corpus Context [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s]] treats the episode as adjudication by research institutions rather than as a purely technical verdict. ## Sources / Provenance - James Lighthill, “Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey,” 1973.