At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, having an IBM 701 meant that scientists could run nuclear explosives computations faster.

This misquote may stem from a statement by his son, Thomas Watson Jr. at the 1953 IBM annual stockholders' meeting.

In 1952, IBM paired with language scholars from Georgetown University to develop translation software for use on computers.

On January 7, 1954, the team developed an experimental software program that allowed the IBM 701 computer to translate from Russian to English.

[13] In 1954, a group of scientists ran millions of simulated hands of blackjack on an IBM 701 looking to determine the best playing decision for every combination of cards.

The result of the study was the set of correct rules for hitting, standing, doubling or splitting in a blackjack game which are still the same today.

[13] The IBM 701 has a claim to be the first computer displaying the potential of artificial intelligence in Arthur Samuel's checkers-playing program on February 24, 1956.

It is still considered a milestone for artificial intelligence and it offered the public during the early 1960s an example of the capabilities of an electronic computer.

[14] The University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore developed a language compilation and runtime system called the KOMPILER for their IBM 701.

The IBM 701 system[15] was composed of the following units: The total weight (depending on configuration) was about 20,516 pounds (10.3 short tons; 9.3 t).

The IBM 701 had only two programmer accessible registers: The Magnetic Drum Reader/Recorder was added on the recommendation of John von Neumann, who said it would reduce the need for high speed I/O.