Artificial Intelligence

Rating:
Summary: Good basic introduction, but little else.
Review: I am a games programmer who was wanting to get better understanding of some artificial intelligence applications and theory. This book provided a reasonable introduction, but very little more than I had picked up from my own experience. Search algorithms, State spaces, goal oriented planning and all the basics are covered, but it doesn't go much farther from there. If you know NOTHING about AI it could be a useful addition to your library, but if you're even a novice like myself with introductory understanding it probably won't offer you anything new.

Rating:
Summary: Very Crisp
Review: It requires a number of readings to understand. No detailed examples or code for most of the topics. Not clearly explained the relation between Memory-based reasoning and case-based reasoning. If you are already have some knowledge in AI or if you want to know in some detail of various topics of AI then this is a good book. Probably Nils J Nilson's AI book may be a good one to start and then use this book.

Rating:
Summary: A really bad textbook.
Review: This is one of the worst books I have actually seen on the subject of Artificial Intelligence. This book is aimed at both advanced undergraduate and graduate studies in AI. It does cover a large number of topics as expected by an introductory book on AI.

The main problem with this book is its use of language. The book tries to explain everything in formal english. This makes the explanations extremely hard to understand without rereading it a number of times. There is no time spent in giving explanations in simpler prose or resorting to mathematical formalism wherever needed. But instead the book reads like Principia Mathematica, except that the words used are familiar English words instead of Greek symbols.

Of course, a seasoned veteran of the subject can easily make sense of most of the things in the book. But the book is designed to throw off any new student of the subject. Unfortunately the book does not even work as a handy reference for a veteran. Finding stuff in the book does require a lot of reading through difficult prose.

Overall this is a bad book, both has an introductory text book and as a reference book. If you are looking for an AI textbook: I would highly recommend Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Russel & Norvig.

Rating:
Summary: Good basic introduction, but little else.
Review: This is the best introduction about AI I know. It is well readable but still gives precise information. I recommed this as yout first book on AI (second one could be e. g. Winstons AI-Book).