The Artificial Language Laboratory was founded in 1972 in the Computer Science Department of Michigan State University by Morteza Amir Rahimi, Assistant Professor, and Harry Hedges, Chairperson.

Dr. Rahimi became the first director of the Lab. John Eulenberg, then Visiting Assistant Professor in Linguistics, became a research associate and, in 1974, co-director with Professor Rahimi.

In 1980, Dr. Eulenberg became sole director when Dr. Rahimi left MSU to become Chair of Computer Science at Wayne State University. In 1983, Dr. Eulenberg's major department was changed to Audiology and Speech Sciences (ASC) in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS), and the Lab has been under the aegis of ASC/CAS ever since. Stephen Blosser, Mechanical/Rehabilitation Engineer, joined the Lab in 1978 as Technical Director. It later went under the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders.