Gary G. Hendrix is an American computer scientist, artificial-intelligence researcher, and entrepreneur who founded Symantec Corporation in 1982. His work in natural-language processing at SRI International helped connect academic artificial-intelligence research with commercial software, including Symantec's Q&A database and productivity product.
Background
Hendrix became interested in artificial intelligence while studying at the University of Texas in the early 1970s. The field was then developing at the intersection of computer science, linguistics, cognitive science, and robotics, while federal research programs were supporting experiments in natural-language understanding.
His early research included robotics, planning, semantic networks, and computational approaches to language. Work produced during his doctoral studies attracted the attention of researchers at SRI International and helped lead to his move from Texas to California for research in artificial intelligence.
Education
Hendrix studied at the University of Texas, completing an undergraduate degree in May 1970 and a master's degree in December 1970. The university was a major public research institution whose computer-science activities expanded during the growth of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics in the 1970s.
He continued at the University of Texas in doctoral study under Robert Simmons and completed a PhD in computer science in 1975. His academic work addressed robotics, planning, semantic representation, and natural-language processing, fields that were becoming central to the emerging discipline of artificial intelligence.
Career
Hendrix conducted artificial-intelligence research at SRI International in Menlo Park, California, where he worked on natural-language understanding, semantic grammars, knowledge representation, and speech-understanding systems. SRI, founded in 1946 as Stanford Research Institute and independent of Stanford University since 1970, was a major nonprofit research center connecting university science with government and industrial projects. Hendrix became associated with its Artificial Intelligence Center and directed its Natural Language Research Program.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hendrix participated in the formation of Machine Intelligence Corporation with other SRI researchers. The company pursued commercial applications of artificial intelligence, including robotics and natural-language technology, but did not achieve lasting commercial success.
Hendrix founded Symantec Corporation in 1982 with support from a National Science Foundation grant. The company initially focused on artificial-intelligence projects and natural-language interfaces for databases, hiring researchers from the Stanford and SRI communities. Its work later developed into Q&A, a commercial software product introduced in 1985 that combined database management, reporting, word processing, and an English-language intelligent assistant for IBM-compatible personal computers.
Symantec merged with C&E Software in 1984, combining Hendrix's natural-language and database technology with C&E's personal-computer software development. Hendrix remained associated with Symantec until 1991. His career connected experimental artificial-intelligence research with the practical constraints of microcomputer software and helped bring natural-language interfaces to a broader commercial audience.
Views
Hendrix's published work and oral-history account present a practical view of artificial intelligence. He emphasized the value of connecting theoretical research in language and knowledge representation with systems that could answer questions, manage information, and assist users in concrete settings.
His career also reflected an interest in making computing more accessible. The development of natural-language interfaces such as Q&A sought to reduce the need for specialized database commands and to let users interact with software through ordinary English questions.
