Artificial Intelligence— A Modern Approach -- A Review

Within the past three years, several new AI textbooks have been published, all written by well-known researchers (Dean, Allen, and Aloiminos 1995; Russell and Norvig 1995; Shoham 1994; Ginsberg 1993). Thus, it is not surprising that the authors of each of these textbooks have sought a way to distinguish their own book from the rest. The hook for Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig's new textbook, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, is indicated on the book's jacket, which proclaims it to be 'the intelligent agent book.' Throughout the book, attention is given to the question of how individual AI algorithms might be incorporated into a larger agent that interacts with its environment. I've been teaching from the Russell and Norvig textbook for the past two years, and I think it's a terrific book; however, I think its merit is more or less independent of its identity as the intelligent-agent book.