The bigger picture is that the MIT AI Lab was working on projects for DARPA ( DEFENSE Advanced Research Projects Agency ). This sponsor wanted to commercialize the research results, so that that at the next stage companies would be suppliers of AI hardware and software for the military (for space-based weapons, fighter planes, autonomous vehicles, ...). Many of the early Lisp machines were bought by Reagan's star wars program.
Thus it was not LMI or Symbolics who raided some innocent lab, it was a new stage in a government directed and financed technology development program, primarily for the military.
Thus it was not LMI or Symbolics who raided some innocent lab, it was a new stage in a government directed and financed technology development program, primarily for the military.