The Wall Street Journal asked readers to rank the U.S. inventions that most impacted society. SRI played a foundational role in four of the top 15.
For the three months, readers of The Wall Street Journal have been ranking U.S. inventions based on how they have impacted society.
The results are now in and SRI is responsible for four of the top 15: the internet, personal computing, (color) television, and artificial intelligence.
In each case, it took bold thinking to see the future and dedicated SRI research to turn that future into a reality that truly changed the world. As SRI celebrates its 80th anniversary, we’re tipping our hat to an incredible past and leaning into the future at a time when the world considers the grand challenges of AI, quantum technologies, sustainability, security, and more.
#1: Internet
Today, the internet connects the entire world. But first, it needed to simply connect two computers. That first long-distance computer-to-computer connection took place at 10:30 p.m. on October 29, 1969, when UCLA attempted to send a message to SRI as part of the ARPANET project. While the initial try crashed the system, UCLA and SRI engineers were successfully messaging back and forth before the night was over.
As computer networking matured, SRI’s work on internetworking and the Network Information Center further accelerated the internet’s journey from a promising research project into today’s globe-spanning information network.
#2: Personal computer
The Wall Street Journal singles out the introduction of the Altair 8800 in 1975 as the dawn of personal computing.
While that may be the first time hobbyists were able to buy a computer of their own, the larger vision of personal computing hatched from the mind of SRI engineer Douglas Engelbart years earlier. In the 1968 “Mother of all Demos,” Engelbart was the first to demonstrate how tools like the computer mouse (invented at SRI), hypertext, and teleconferencing would one day allow non-programmers to effectively use computers for everyday tasks.
The 1973 release of the Alto PC from Xerox PARC (now part of SRI) further iterated on SRI’s early work, adding features like the now-ubiquitous graphical user interface and paving the way for the personal computing explosion in the 1980s.
#14: Television
“By 1955, half of U.S. households owned a [TV] set, usurping radio as the nation’s primary entertainment hub,” The Wall Street Journal observes.
Television was bound to be an influential technology. But it was the rollout of color television, in particular, that forever changed the way we experience places and events happening thousands of miles away from our living rooms.
RCA Laboratories (now part of SRI) devised the first complete electronic color TV system in 1953. In 1955, RCA won its first Emmy for inventing the tricolor picture tube that brought color television out of the lab and into the real world. Later, in 1997, Sarnoff Corporation (now part of SRI) earned an Emmy for its role in developing HDTV. (Incidentally, SRI also earned an Oscar for its work on the movie printing timer.)
#15: Artificial Intelligence
While the idea of artificial intelligence emerged in the 1950s, few organizations were devoting time and effort to it.
A major inflection point came in 1966, when SRI founded its Artificial Intelligence Center. That pioneering AI lab — which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year — profoundly shaped the future of AI research.
In the 1960s, the AI Center introduced Shakey the Robot, which became the first robot to navigate its surroundings using AI. Later, SRI’s AI Center spun out Siri and launched a revolution in AI-driven virtual personal assistants. And the center’s foundational work in areas like natural language processing and agentic AI have paved the way for many of the AI capabilities that are changing the world today.
Celebrating the past, looking to the future
SRI’s role in these breakthroughs is a reminder that world-changing inventions rarely appear all at once. They begin as bold ideas, early experiments, and enabling technologies that open entirely new possibilities. From receiving the first internet message to reimagining how humans interact with computers, SRI has repeatedly turned new ideas into technologies that reshape daily life.
That legacy continues today. SRI is hard at work on the next generation of breakthroughs that will define the future, from new quantum capabilities to cutting-edge carbon capture solutions, innovative approaches to education, critical innovations in national defense technologies, developments in AI privacy and transparency, and so much more.
Learn more about the SRI innovations that have re-shaped our world.
