. . . Exactly what the computer provides is the ability not to be rigid and unthinking but, rather, to behave conditionally. That is what it means to apply knowledge to action: It means to let the action taken reflect knowledge of the situation, to be sometimes this way, sometimes that, as appropriate. . . . In sum, technology can be controlled especially if it is saturated with intelligence to watch over how it goes, to keep accounts, to prevent errors, and to provide wisdom to each decision. -Allen Newell, from Fairy Tales

Welcome to our OVERVIEW!

If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the American Association for Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."

However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) . . .

Good Places to Start

What is Artificial Intelligence? By John McCarthy. Computer Science Department, Stanford University. One of the founders of the field of AI, McCarthy covers the basics in a question and answer format.

• Also see:
  • A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence which introduces the term, artificial intelligence;
  • some more definitions from our Reference Shelf

Artificial Intelligence (AI). BBC Hot Topics - The science behind the news (July 21, 2003). "In the film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, a computer program tries to take over the world. Is this just science fiction, or could it really happen? Find out how close we really are to creating machines that can think for themselves in our Hot Topic on artificial intelligence (AI)."

Whatever happened to machines that think? By Justin Mullins. New Scientist (April 23, 2005; Issue 2496: pages 32 - 37). "Clever computers are everywhere. From robotic lawnmowers to intelligent lighting, washing machines and even car engines that self-diagnose faults, there's a silicon brain in just about every modern device you can think of. But can you honestly call any machine intelligent in a meaningful sense of the word?"

AI Knows It’s Out There. Red Herring (August 22, 2005 print issue). "Many people think of artificial intelligence (AI) as a high-flying 1980s tech concept that crashed and burned back in the early 1990s after a good deal of hype. The fact is, AI technology has become pervasive in much of the software we use today. ... 'The big picture is that AI is almost everywhere, but we don't call it such,' says Alex Linden, vice president in the Frankfurt office of research firm Gartner. Turn up your nose at AI and you’ll be ignoring some of the latest technologies and business opportunities."

How A.I. works. By Peter McMahon (June 22, 2001). From Discovery Channel Canada's AI mini-site. "So, you've been to every web site, movie and sci-fi convention that has anything to do with A.I. and you want to build an intelligent machine. Here are some things you'll need to know..." And then be sure to explore the rest of the Artificial Intelligence mini-site for exciting reports about other facets of AI.

The Prospects for AI. Listen to this panel discussion with Neil Jacobstein, Patrick Lincoln, Peter Norvig and Bruno Olshausen recorded on September 17, 2005 at the Accelerating Change 2005 conference and made available by IT Conversations.

21st-Century AI - Proud, Not Smug. By Tim Menzies. IEEE Intelligent Systems (May/June 2003). "AI is no longer a bleeding-edge technology -- hyped by its proponents and mistrusted by the mainstream. In the 21st century, AI is not necessarily amazing. Rather, it's often routine. Evidence for AI technology's routine and dependable nature abounds...."

It's Alive! - From airport tarmacs to online job banks to medical labs, artificial intelligence is everywhere. By Jennifer Kahn. Wired Magazine (March 2002; Issue 10.03). "In truth, we may never chat up a computer at a cocktail party. But in smaller yet significant ways, artificial intelligence is already here: in the cruise control of cars, the servers that route our email, and the personalized ads clogging our browser windows. The future is all around us."

Robots/ Mechanical Life. NPR Talk of the Nation: Science Friday With Ira Flatow (August 30, 2002). "This week, an automated convenience store opened in Washington. This robo-mart dispenses snacks, toiletries, and even DVDs. From housekeeping to the battlefield to your neighborhood convenience store, researchers are creating robots to live with us and work for us. In this hour, we'll look at how robots may change our lives. Plus, early attempts to create mechanical life." Guests: Rodney Brooks & Gaby Wood. You can listen to the radio broadcast by clicking here.

Smart Tools - Companies in health care, finance, and retailing are using artificial-intelligence systems to filter huge amounts of data and identify suspicious transactions. By Otis Port, with Michael Arndt and John Carey. Business Week's 2003 edition of The BusinessWeek50. "Some managers still think that artificial intelligence--the decades-long effort to create computer systems with human-like smarts--has been a big flop. But executives at most companies on the BW50 list know better. Artificial intelligence (AI) is often a crucial ingredient in their stellar performance. In fact, AI is now a part of a swath of industries as broad as the BW50 itself."

The Next Big Thing - Artificial Intelligence. BBC /Open University. "Leading scientists join Professor Colin Blakemore for a live and topical debate to discuss The Next Big Thing in science. This week [March 15, 2002], the panel looks at the issue of Artificial Intelligence. In the 21st century, A.I. is gradually moving more and more into people's everyday lives, especially as the interest in computers and computer games grows. New Artificial Intelligence advancements are constantly becoming available - so who knows what the future might bring?" Be sure to check out:

• the story so far: "Robots already exist that are autonomous: they can learn, communicate and teach each other. They can navigate their way around our world and be linked to extremely powerful computers that will give them a processing capacity well beyond that of humans. How did scientists develop the technology to produce A.I. machines?"
• explore a.i. in depth: "The idea of the robot replacing the need for human intelligence is a startling thought. Could these machines develop beyond our control? This section explains what Artificial Intelligence is and the scientific skills involved."
• hear the arguments: "Can A.I. really match human brainpower? The arguments of leading scientists Professor Aaron Sloman, Dr Amanda Sharkey and Professor Igor Aleksander are summarised below. Do you agree with their views?"
• watch Machines with Minds: the freeview video of this event, available from the Vega Science Trust.

A Chat about the Future of Artificial Intelligence with Professor James Hendler. Provided by CNN. Interview date: December 16, 1999. Very lively and very informative!

• for more interviews with AI scientists, see our INTERVIEWS page

What is Artificial Intelligence? By Aaron Sloman. Computer Science Department, University of Birmingham, UK. A very crisp & clear tour of the AI landscape.

• Also see Artificial Intelligence, An Illustrative Overview in which he presents his views about the many dimensions of AI and what an AI degree program should embrace.
• Also available: slide presentations of several of his talks, including "Talk 10: WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? Talk for applicants for AI undergraduate degrees at University of Birmingham;" and "Talk 13: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PHILOSOPHY A talk on AI and philosophy, and how AI can improve on philosophy (and vice versa) for first year AI students at Birmingham."

Artificial Intelligence. By David B. Leake Indiana University. [To appear, Van Nostrand Scientific Encyclopedia, Ninth Edition, Wiley, New York, 2002.] "Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that studies the computational requirements for tasks such as perception, reasoning, and learning, and develops systems to perform those tasks. AI is a diverse field whose researchers address a wide range of problems, use a variety of methods, and pursue a spectrum of scientific goals."

• More resources like this can be found on our Reference Shelf.

Artificial Intelligence Tutorial Review. Developed and compiled by Eyal Reingold and Johnathan Nightingale of the University of Toronto. "This review has been designed with the expectation that its readers are new to the area, and care is taken to explain concepts fully. The review should provide an interesting and accessible introduction for beginners, but may be somewhat redundant for readers with more background in the area. Nevertheless, more advanced readers may find interesting links and demonstrations throughout the review."

Computer History Museum Timeline Exhibit. "This timeline explores the history of computing from 1945 to 1990. Each year features illustrated descriptions of significant innovations in hardware and software technology, as well as milestones in areas such as commercial applications and artificial intelligence. When appropriate, biographical sketches of the pioneers responsible for the advances are included."

Donald Michie: The very early days. Interviewed by Michael Bain for the seminar, Artificial Intelligence - Recollections of the Pioneers (October 2002). "Q: What was your earliest contact with the idea of intelligent machinery? A: Arriving at Bletchley Park in 1942 I formed a friendship with Alan Turing, and in April 1943 with Jack Good. The three of us formed a sort of discussion club focused around Turing's astonishing 'child machine' concept. His proposal was to use our knowledge of how the brain acquires its intelligence as a model for designing a teachable intelligent machine." You can also watch the interview: Quicktime or Realmedia.

Austin Tate [AIAI, School of Informatics, University of Edinburg] Answers Some Questions including: What is your definition of AI, how is it linked to what we define as intelligence, what have been the key break throughs in AI?.

Stuart Russell on the Future of Artificial Intelligence. Ubiquity; Volume 4, Issue 43 (December 24 - January 6, 2004). "UBIQUITY: The original grand vision of artificial intelligence (AI) in the 1950s and '60s seemed to dissipate into many small, disparate projects. Should this fragmentation be written off as an inevitable Humpty-Dumpty problem or is it possible to bring the fragments back together into a single field? RUSSELL: I think we can put it back together in the sense of being able to join the pieces. Of course, the pieces won't be subsumed under one Über theory of intelligence."

A Career in Artificial Intelligence. From New Scientist Graduate. "Until Steven Spielberg's movie came along, the two things that spring to mind when most people heard the term AI were artificial insemination or very crude robot brains. But slowly artificial intelligence is making its way into the mainstream and the process is drawing in graduates from a many fields as its full potential begins to dawn.

. . .To achieve their full impact, computer systems must have more than processing power--they must have intelligence. They need to be able to assimilate and use large bodies of information and collaborate with and help people find new ways of working together effectively. The technology must become more responsive to human needs and styles of work, and must employ more natural means of communication. --Barbara Grosz and Randall Davis

Readings Online

Artificial Intelligence - A ZDNET UK News Special Report. (January 23, 2001) Seven fascinating and lively articles about AI that will take you right to the edge of where the science is today and then offer a glimpse over the horizon, and in the process address some important philosophical issues.

AI Growing Up: The Changes and Opportunities. By James F. Allen (1998). AI Magazine 19(4): 13-23. "Many people make many confusing claims about the aims and potential for success of work in AI. Much of this arises from a misunderstanding of the nature of work in the field. In this article, I examine the field and make some observations that I think would help alleviate some of the problems. I also argue that the field is at a major turning point, and that this will substantially change the work done and the way it is evaluated."

AI's Half-Century. By Margaret A. Boden (1995). AI Magazine 16 (4): 96-99. The first 50 years of AI are reviewed, and current controversies outlined. Scientific disputes include disagreements over the best research methodology, including classical AI, connectionism, hybrid systems, and situated and evolutionary robotics. Philosophical disputes concern (for instance) whether computation is necessary and sufficient for mentality, whether representations are essential for intelligence, whether consciousness can be explained objectively, and so forth.

The Essence of Artificial Intelligence. By Alison Cawsey, Alison (1998). Essence of Computing Series. London: Prentice Hall Europe. This book emphasizes practical aspects and main techniques. Link to the author's website for an overview of the book, sample Prolog programs and tutorials.

Strategic Directions in Artificial Intelligence. By Jon Doyle and Thomas Dean (1996). ACM Computing Surveys 28 (4): 653-670. "Abstract: This report, written for the general computing and scientific audience and for students and others interested in artificial intelligence, summarizes the major directions in artificial intelligence research, sets them in context relative to other areas of computing research, and gives a glimpse of the vision, depth, research partnerships, successes, and excitement of the field." (Available in HTML at this site.)

Computers and Thought. Edited by Edward A. Feigenbaum and Julian Feldman. AAAI Press. The following excerpt is from the Preface which is available online: "Computers and Thought is indeed a treasure. Some of the papers are as important today for their fundamental ideas as they were in the late 1950s and early 1960s when they were written. Others are interesting as early milestones of fields that have expanded and changed dramatically. Afew are interesting in that they represent work that simply did not go anywhere. Some of the papers describe key work that is not typically taught any more, but is 'buried' deeply in the conceptual structure of AI—a heritage that needs to be honored and preserved. ... Today’s young AI researcher can not easily imagine the excitement of the early years of AI, from which the papers of this volume are drawn." You can see which papers were included by viewing the Contents page.

Constructions of the Mind: Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities. "A special issue edited by Stefano Franchi and Guven Guzeldere The Volume 4, issue 2 [Spring 1995] of the Stanford Humanities Review is devoted to the exploration of convergences and dissonances between Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities." More than a dozen full-text articles await you at this site!

AI at the Inception - A 25th-anniversary edition of a classic chronicles the fledgling science of artificial intelligence. Book review by Henry Fountain. Scientific American (May 2004). "When Machines Who Think was first published in 1979, it was an up-to-the-moment history. But in a digital world, that moment was an eternity ago, so McCorduck has appended a 30,000-word afterword to bring the reader up-to-date. [Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence. A K Peters, Natick, Mass., 2004.] ... That slow infusion of AI into everyday computing picked up speed after 1979, and in the afterword McCorduck gives a taste of these advances and of recent research in robotics, natural-language processing and other fields that are, in essence, AI spin-offs."

• Also see Pamela McCorduck's FAQ Collection. Questions include: How long has the human race dreamed about thinking machines? Artificial intelligence - is it real? What so-called smart .computers do -- is that really thinking? Shouldn't we just say no to intelligent machines? Aren't the risks too scary? and, What's ahead as AI succeeds even more?

A Report to ARPA on Twenty-First Century Intelligent Systems. By Barbara Grosz and Randall Davis (1994). AI Magazine 15 (3): 10-20. This report describes AI research areas where fundamental scientific advances could enable intelligent systems to meet national needs.

AI Matures and Flourishes in North America. By David Mike Hamilton, Tom M. Mitchell, and Carol M. Hamilton. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 18(4): 87-88, c3 (July/August 2003). "Separate artificial intelligence organizations in North America have existed for nearly 40 years. From humble beginnings,when a small interest group served the field, to today,when AI groups serve every niche, AI is flourishing.The oldest AI organization in the region is SIGART, the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence. SIGART began publishing a newsletter for its members in the mid 1960s...."

Artificial Intelligence: What Works and What Doesn't? By Frederick Hayes-Roth (1997). AI Magazine 18 (2): 99-113.

AI's Greatest Trends and Controversies. Marti A. Hearst and Haym Hirsh, Editors. IEEE Intelligent Systems (January/February 2000). A timely and thought provoking collection of views from AI scholars and practitioners.

IBM gets smart about Artificial Intelligence. By Pamela Kramer. IBM Think Research (June 2001). Computer vision, data mining, natural language, and more are covered in this article.

• Also from IBM:
  • IBM Research - Artificial Intelligence: "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the study of how computer systems can simulate intelligent processes such as learning, reasoning, and understanding symbolic information in context. AI is inherently a multi-disciplinary field. Although it is most commonly viewed as a subfield of computer science, and draws upon work in algorithms, databases, and theoretical computer science, AI also has close connections to the neurosciences, cognitive science and cognitive psychology, mathematical logic, and engineering."
  • Computer Science Brochure

A.I.: From the Big Screen to the Real World. By Kristin Leutwyler. Scientific American (July 2, 2001). "As an exercise in honor of the new movie, Scientific American decided to go back to the present -- and our own recent past -- and recast A.I. with real scientists and robots from today."

Artificial Intelligence, Spring 2003. Professors Tomás Lozano-Pérez & Leslie Kaelbling. Available from MIT OpenCourseWare. "The site features a full set of course notes, in addition to other materials used in the course. [The course] introduces representations, techniques, and architectures used to build applied systems and to account for intelligence from a computational point of view."

Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving, 5th Edition. A textbook by George F. Luger. 2005. Addison-Wesley. Several sections are available online.

• Preface: "Although artificial intelligence, like most engineering disciplines, must justify itself to the world of commerce by providing solutions to practical problems, we entered the field of AI for the same reasons as many of our colleagues and students: we want to understand and explore the mechanisms of mind that enable intelligent thought and action. We reject the rather provincial notion that intelligence is an exclusive ability of humans, and believe that we can effectively investigate the space of possible intelligences by designing and evaluating intelligent artifacts. Although the course of our careers has given us no cause to change these commitments, we have arrived at a greater appreciation for the scope, complexity, and audacity of this undertaking."
• Chapter One, AI: Early History and Applications: "Mary Shelley shows us the extent to which scientific advances such as the work of Darwin and the discovery of electricity had convinced even nonscientists that the workings of nature were not divine secrets, but could be broken down and understood systematically. Frankenstein's monster is not the product of shamanistic incantations or unspeakable transactions with the underworld: it is assembled from separately 'manufactured' components and infused with the vital force of electricity. Although nineteenth-century science was inadequate to realize the goal of understanding and creating a fully intelligent agent, it affirmed the notion that the mysteries of life and intellect might be brought into the light of scientific analysis."

The Knowledge Level. By Allen Newell. AAAI Presidential Address, 19 August 1980. AI Magazine (1981); 2 (2): 1-20. A classic article describing the differences in viewing computer programs at the symbol level or the knowledge level.

Fairy Tales. By Allen Newell. AI Magazine (1992); 13 (4): 46-48. In this reprint of Allen Newell's classic essay, Newell argues not only that fairytales are for all of us, but that, even more, they have a close connection to technology.

Eye on the Prize. By Nils J. Nilsson. AI Magazine (1995);16 (2): 9-17. In its early stages, the field of AI had as its main goal the invention of computer programs having the general problem-solving abilities of humans. Along the way, a major shift of emphasis developed from general-purpose programs toward performance programs, ones whose competence was highly specialized and limited to particular areas of expertise. In this article, Nilsson claims that AI is now at the beginning of another transition, one that will reinvigorate efforts to build programs of general, humanlike competence.

Computational Intelligence - A Logical Approach. By David Poole, Alan Mackworth and Randy Goebel. 1998. Oxford University Press, New York. "Our theory is based on logic. Logic has been developed over the centuries as a formal (that is, precise not obtuse) way of representing assumptions about a world and the process of deriving the consequences of those assumptions. For simple agents in simple worlds we start with a highly restricted simple logic. Then as our agent/environment requires, we increase the logical power of the formalism. Since a computer is simply a symbol-manipulation engine, we can easily map our formal theories into computer programs that can control an agent or be used to reason about an agent. Everything we describe is implemented that way." - From the Preface, which is available online.

• Chapter 1 is also available online and addresses questions such as:
  • "What is Computational Intelligence? Computational intelligence is the study of the design of intelligent agents. An agent is something that acts in an environment -- it does something. ... The central scientific goal of computational intelligence is to understand the principles that make intelligent behavior possible, in natural or artificial systems. The main hypothesis is that reasoning is computation. The central engineering goal is to specify methods for the design of useful, intelligent artifacts. ..."
  • "Artificial or Computational Intelligence? Artificial intelligence (AI) is the established name for the field we have defined as computational intelligence (CI), but the term 'artificial intelligence' is a source of much confusion. Is artificial intelligence real intelligence? Perhaps not, just as an artificial pearl is a fake pearl, not a real pearl. 'Synthetic intelligence' might be a better name, since, after all, a synthetic pearl may not be a natural pearl but it is a real pearl. However, since we claimed that the central scientific goal is to understand both natural and artificial (or synthetic) systems, we prefer the name 'computational intelligence.' It also has the advantage of making the computational hypothesis explicit in the name. ..."

Foundations and Grand Challenges of Artificial Intelligence. Raj Reddy's 1988 AAAI Presidential Address. AI Magazine 9 (4): 9-21.

• In fact, you can read some of the other AAAI Presidential Addresses: "During their term of office, each AAAI President is invited to deliver a presidential address to the AI community. Traditionally, this address has been delivered at the AAAI National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and, in recent years, the addresses have been published in AI Magazine. As a service to the community, AI Magazine is collecting these articles and making them available (in PDF format) to the scientific community at large."

To Dream The Possible Dream. Raj Reddy's Turing Award Lecture presented at the ACM CS Conference, March 1, 1995. "This essay is collection of retrospective and prospective remarks on the role of AI within CS and in society. It includes comments on questions such as: Can artificial intelligence equal human intelligence? Isn't AI just a special class of algorithms? Isn't AI just software? Why should society support AI and CS research? What next for AI? And so on. The main theme is that AI continues to be a possible dream worthy of dreaming."

• Also see this interview with Raj Reddy.

AI's Next Brain Wave. New research in artificial intelligence could lay the groundwork for computer systems that learn from their users and the world around them. Part four in The Future Of Software series. By Aaron Ricadela. InformationWeek (April 25, 2005). "InformationWeek took a look at four research labs working in artificial intelligence, at IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Xerox subsidiary Palo Alto Research Center. Instead of leading to another round of outsize expectations, this generation of research likely could lay the groundwork for a new breed of computer systems that learn from their users and the world around them."

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (Second Edition). A textbook by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. 2002. Prentice Hall. The Preface and several chapters are available online, as is their collection of AI Resources on the Web.

Where's the AI? By Roger C. Schank (1991). AI Magazine 12 (4): 38-49. Roger Schank surveys four viewpoints about what artificial intelligence is.

Artificial Intelligentsia - Proselytizers of a future in which smart machines reign have not lost the faith. By Gary Stix. Scientific American (October 30, 2000). "To mark the opening of a new computer center that bears the name of AI pioneers Alan Newell and Herbert Simon, the university held a one-day conference on October 19th that brought together experts from inside and outside the university (including Arthur C. Clarke, if only in video presence). Their mission: to answer the question of whether computers would help or hinder the building of a good world in the year 2050."

HAL's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality. David G. Stork, editor.(1997). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Compares the book/movie computer celebrity with what has been achieved in AI.

Computing Machinery and Intelligence. By Alan M. Turing (1950). Mind 59 (Oct 1950): 433-60. ["Originally published by Oxford University Press on behalf of MIND (the Journal of the Mind Association), vol. LIX, no. 236, pp. 433-60, 1950. Published on the abelard site by permission of Oxford University Press."] An all-time classic paper that discusses the prospects of AI and dismisses some still-current arguments against AI.

Prepared for the National Science Foundation by AAAI. Daniel S. Weld, editor. (1995). The report explains how AI techniques can play a central role in the development of a useful and usable National Information Infrastructure (NII) because they offer the best alternative for addressing three key challenges.

Related Web Sites

AI on the Web. A resource companion to Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig's "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" with links to people, companies, software, reference material and much, much more. Among the many subtopics are Overview of AI and Highly Recommended Links.

Artificial Intelligence Repository. Carnegie Mellon University. Primarily for researchers and students, this site makes available technical reports, programming software, newsgroup archives, and links to other resources.

Artificial Intelligence FAQs. Easy access to the collection of FAQs that moved from CMU to UCLA.

Bibliographies on Artificial Intelligence. Maintained by Alf-Christian Achilles. This is part of The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies which is updated monthly and now contains over one million references. The search feature is very user friendly.

Biblio Query. By OMFAI/IMKAI. A searchable bibliography on artificial intelligence by the Dept. of Medical Cybernetics and AI at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Research Institute for AI.

Can Computers Think? Mapping Great Debates. Visit MacroVU's site and if you are patient, you can preview their "7 poster-sized argumentation maps that chart the entire history of the debate. The maps outline arguments put forth since 1950 by more than 380 cognitive scientists, philosophers, artificial intelligence researchers, mathematicians, and others."

The Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence. "Sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conferences traditionally consist of of case studies of deployed applications with measurable benefits whose value depends on the use of AI technology. In addition, many IAAI conferences augment these case studies with papers and invited talks that address emerging areas of AI technology or applications." You can get an idea of what's been going on by reading the tables of contents (available in PDF format) for the Proceedings starting with the 1989 report. (And if you find something of interest, try plugging the title and/or the author(s) into an online search engine to get more information.)

Scientific American Frontiers' Private Eyes Teaching Guide (from the Inventing the Future series). "The development of increasingly advanced technology in computers and robotics has sparked serious debate among scientists regarding the possible existence of artificial intelligence. Scientists divide into two basic factions. One group believes such development is possible in the relatively near future; the other disagrees, arguing that computers and machines will never achieve the equivalent of human intelligence. How smart are smart rooms? Can a computer really be 'smart' at all? Consider the possible answers to this question and debate the positions scientists held about artificial intelligence."

• Please visit our Resources for Educators page to check out other teaching guides from Scientific American Frontiers . . . and the rest of our collection of resources for teachers.

Related Pages

• AI in the news
• AI Industry Statistics
• Applications
• Computer Science
• The Future
• General Index to AI in the news: AI Overview
• Grand Challenges
• History
• It's Show Time (videos, demos, and more)
• Reference Shelf
• Site Map

More Readings

• Journals
• General Encyclopedias
• Textbooks
• General Interest Books
• Articles, etc.
• ... and also see our Reference Shelf

Journals

SEE -> AI Journals & Magazines on the Reference Shelf page.

General Encyclopedias

_____. 1994. Artificial Intelligence. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Macropaedia, Volume 16, 635-637. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

_____.1993. Artificial Intelligence. In Encyclopedia of Computer Science, ed. Ralston, Anthony and Edwin D. Reilly, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Abelson, Harold. 1997. Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. In The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook, ed. Tucker Jr, Allen B., 497-499. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Inc.

Jarvis, John. F., and Edward Grant. 1997. Intelligent Machines. In McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Volume 9, 309-313. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Newell, Allen, and Bruce G. Buchanan.1997. Artificial Intelligence. In McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Volume 2, 146-150. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Also see our Reference Shelf.

Textbooks

Textbooks are referenced throughout the AI TOPICS site, such as those mentioned in the Readings Online section of this page.

[The list that appeared here has been relocated to our Page Archive and it is no longer being maintained.]

General Interest Books

Bobrow, Daniel G., editor. 1994. Artificial Intelligence in Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Book/MIT Press. Printed first in 1993 in the journal Artificial Intelligence 59: 5-20. Bobrow has brought together thoughts and comments from the authors of several classic papers whose work has been continuously used and referred to by AI scientists. The contributors reflect on the impact their work has had during decades of AI research.

Boden, Margaret A. 1977. Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man. New York: Basic Books. Although the examples are somewhat dated, this book remains a clear discussion of the goals and controversial issues of AI.

Cawsey, Alison. 1998. The Essence of Artificial Intelligence. Essence of Computing Series. London: Prentice Hall Europe. This book emphasizes practical aspects and main techniques. Link to the author's website for an overview of the book, sample Prolog programs and tutorials.

Challoner, Jack. 2002. Artificial Intelligence (part of the Essential Science series). New York: DK Publishing Inc.

Fetzer, James H., editor. 1988. Aspects of Artificial Intelligence. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press. A collection of articles by AI professionals. Contributions on the ontological foundations of AI by B. Cantwell Smith, J. H. Moor, J. C. Maloney, W. J. Rapaport, J. H. Fetzer, B. MacLennan. Articles on AI methodology from C. Glymour, B. Buchanan, D. Nute, T. Rankin, K. Kelly, R. A. Vaughan, R. Scheines.

Gelernter, David. 1994. The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought. New York: The Free Press of Macmillan, Inc.

Hogan, James P. 1997. Mind Matters: Exploring the World of Artificial Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group. A non-technical look at the development, history, issues and people in the AI field.

Kurzweil, Raymond. 1990. The Age of Intelligent Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• Also see -> The Age of Intelligent Machines: The Film. By Raymond Kurzweil. "A survey of Artificial Intelligence showing AI at work and under development. The paradoxes, promise and challenges of advanced computer science, with authorities Marvin Minsky, Roger Schank, Raj Reddy and other leaders in the field. " (Total time 28:40).

McCorduck, Pamela. 2004. Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence. A K Peters, Natick, Mass. [Reviewed in Scientific American; May 2004.]

• Also see Pamela McCorduck's FAQ Collection.

Minsky, Marvin. 1985. The Society of Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Scientific American. 2002. Understanding Artificial Intelligence. New York: Warner Books, Inc. A collection of essays with a Foreword by Rodney Brooks and an Introduction by Sandy Fritz.

Simon, Herbert. 1996. Sciences of the Artificial. 3rd edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. A classic book, originally published in 1969, that examines several presuppositions of AI. Updates throughout the book take into account advances in cognitive science and the science of design. .

Articles, etc.

Brooks, R. A. 1991a. Intelligence Without Representation. Artificial Intelligence 47 (1-3): 139-159.

Epstein, Robert. 1992. The Quest for the Thinking Computer. AI Magazine 13 (2): 80-95.

Feigenbaum, Edward A. 1996. How the 'What' Becomes the 'How'. Communications of the ACM 39 (5): 97-104.

Hillis, Daniel. 1997. Can They Feel Your Pain? Newsweek 129 (May 5, 1997): 57.

Lenat, Douglas B. 1995. Artificial Intelligence: A Crucial Storehouse of Commonsense Knowledge is Now Taking Shape. Scientific American 273 (3): 80-82.

Masci, David. 1997. Artificial Intelligence. (Cover story). Congressional Quarterly Researcher(November 14, 1997): 985. An easy-to-read overview of AI issues, goals, projects, and a short chronology of AI achievements.

Newell, Allen. 1983. Some Intellectual Issues in the History of Artificial Intelligence. In The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Machlup, F. and U. Mansfield, 187-227. New York: Wiley.

Newell, Allen, and Herbert Simon. 1976. Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search. In Computation and Intelligence, ed. Luger, George F., 91-119. Menlo Park/Cambridge, MA./London: AAAI Press/The MIT Press, 1995. [Originally published in Communications of the ACM 19(3).]

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Stewart, Doug. Interview with Herbert Simon, June 1994. Omni Magazine. One of the many probing questions is: "What is this the main goal of AI?" [No longer available online.]

Ullman, Ellen. 2002. Programming the Post-Human: Computer science redefines "life." Harper's, Vol. 305, No. 1929: 60-70.