arthur lee samuel (december 5, 1901 – july 29, 1990) was an american pioneer in the field of computer gaming and artificial intelligence. he coined the term "machine learning" in 1959. the samuel checkers-playing program was among the world's first successful self-learning programs, and as such a very early demonstration of the fundamental concept of artificial intelligence (ai). he was also a senior member in the tex community who devoted much time giving personal attention to the needs of users and wrote an early tex manual in 1983.