# Speech Understanding Research **Domain:** Artificial Intelligence / Speech Recognition / Research Programs **Doc Type:** Program Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition The **Speech Understanding Research program** was an ARPA initiative begun in 1971 to develop computer systems capable of understanding connected speech under defined vocabulary, speaker and subject constraints. ## Historical Context [[wiki/Lawrence Roberts|Lawrence Roberts]] initiated the program, and an advisory group chaired by [[wiki/Allen Newell|Allen Newell]] with [[wiki/J. C. R. Licklider|J. C. R. Licklider]] among its members refined the performance objectives. Carnegie Mellon's [[wiki/HARPY|HARPY]] became the program's closest approach to those goals. ## Corpus Context [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s]] uses the program to show how disputes over testing and continuation helped produce later [[wiki/AI Benchmarking|benchmark culture]]. ## Sources / Provenance - Allen Newell et al., _Speech-Understanding Systems: Final Report of a Study Group_, 1971/1973. - National Research Council, _Funding a Revolution_, 1999.