Fundamentals

 

This section gives references to introductory texts in AI. Read one of them (we suggest Rich & Knight) cover to cover and look at the others to get a broad view of the field. (*) One might want to read the more up to date Russel & Norvig (but somewhat thicker) instead of Rich & Knight.

• [Russel and Norvig1995] (*) Artificial Intelligence, a Modern Approach. A comprehensive and up to date survay of AI. It is somewhat biased towards Hot issues (e.g., Probabilistic Reasoning), than others (e.g., Nonmonotonic Reasoning), but has a very good index, and very clear explanations, besides being thoroughly extensive. Its weakness lies in what it does not have (e.g., Expert Systems).
• [Rich and Knight1991] Artificial Intelligence 2nd ed.
  This book provides the basics for a substantial portion of the AI field. It is recommended that you read the appropriate sections of this book before each section in this list, and then reread the book cover to cover before the exam to see that you understand the material.

  The book has many references you will recognize on second reading, but it does not cover learning, robotics, and vision in enough detail.

• [Winston1992] Artificial Intelligence.
  The sections on search are good, and so is some of the material on learning (especially Chapter 22 on neural nets).
• [Ginsberg1993] Essential of AI.
  A formal approach to AI.
• [Kantrowitz1993] Answers to Frequently Asked Questions in AI.
  An excellent guide to AI in cyberspace and in the libraries. What are important publications in AI, how to get some of them electronically. Attempts to answer many frequently asked questions (or at least raises the awareness of how hard it is to answer them).