Classic AI Books

Artificial Intelligence Books that Have Defined the Field

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Digital versions of classic AI books that are no longer available in print and a list of others that have influenced the field.

Electronic Versions of Classic AI Books

If you own the copyright to an important book and would like to add it to this collection please contact the AAAI. Additional books listed are available online elsewhere or for sale.

Abelson, Harold, Gerald J. Sussman, with Julie Sussman. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs MIT Press; ISBN 0-262-01077-1 (1984). An excellent computer science text used in introductory courses at MIT. One of the bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Full text available for free.

Buchanan, Bruce G. and Edward H. Shortliffe (eds.) Rule-Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project (1984). Preface by Allen Newell. " In this book we share the results of many experiments performed in nearly a decade of work on MYCIN, and we try to paint a coherent picture of the work. The book is intended to be a critical analysis of several pieces of related research, performed by a large number of scientists."

Clancey, William J. and Edward H. Shortliffe (eds.) Readings in Medical Artificial Intelligence: The First Decade. (1984). A survey of early work exploring how AI can be used in medicine, with somewhat more technical expositions than in the complementary volume Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (below). "Each chapter is preceded by a brief introduction that outlines our view of its contribution to the field, the reason it was selected for inclusion in this volume, an overview of its content, and a discussion of how the work evolved after the article appeared and how it relates to other chapters in the book."

Feigenbaum, Edward A. and Julian Feldman (eds.) Computers and Thought (1963). Also for sale from AAAI Press: Computers and Thought
Computers and Thought'' showcases the work of the scientists who not only defined the field of artificial intelligence, but who are responsible for having developed it into what it is today. Originally published in 1963, this collection includes twenty classic papers by such pioneers as A. M. Turing and Marvin Minsky who were behind the pivotal advances in artificially simulating human thought processes with computers.

Fetzer, James. Artificial Intelligence: Its Scope and Limits. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990. Limited preview available from GoogleBooks.

Haugeland, John . Artificial intelligence: the very idea. MIT Press, 1985. Limited preview available from GoogleBooks.

Hunter, Lawrence (ed.) Artificial Intelligence and Molecular Biology (1993). Intro. by Joshua Lederberg.

Lindsay, Robert K., Bruce G. Buchanan, Edward A. Feigenbaum, Joshua Lederberg. APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: The DENDRAL Project (1980). "It is no mere coincidence that scientists from as diverse disciplines as genetics, computer sciences, and chemistry collaborated in developing DENDRAL as a logical and practical concept. The numerous applications of DENDRAL and related computer programs have now been documented in many scientific publications, and putting all this material, including the historical background, into one single volume constitutes an important service for scientists from many fields." From the Foreword by Carl Djerassi, Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University

Mitchell, Tom. Machine Learning (1997). "Machine Learning is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. Applications range from datamining programs that discover general rules in large data sets, to information filtering systems that automatically learn users' interests. This book provides a single source introduction to the field. It is written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and for developers and researchers in the field. No prior background in artificial intelligence or statistics is assumed. " Downloadable pdf files and lecture slides.

Simon, Herbert A. Sciences of the Artificial revised 3rd ed. (1996), first published in 1969. Limited text available for free through Google books.

Sloman, Aaron. The Computer Revolution in Philosophy. (1978). "Computing can change our ways of thinking about many things, mathematics, biology, engineering, administrative procedures, and many more. But my main concern is that it can change our thinking about ourselves: giving us new models, metaphors, and other thinking tools to aid our efforts to fathom the mysteries of the human mind and heart. The new discipline of Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computing most directly concerned with this revolution. By giving us new, deeper, insights into some of our inner processes, it changes our thinking about ourselves. It therefore changes some of our inner processes, and so changes what we are, like all social, technological and intellectual revolutions. " Complete book available online for free.

Szolovits, Peter (ed.) Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (1982). "An introductory chapter describes the historical and technical foundations of the work .... subsequent chapters describe five prototype computer programs that tackle difficult clinical problems in a manner similar to that of an expert physician. The programs presented are INTERNIST, a diagnostic aid that combines a large database of disease/manifestation associations with techniques for problem formulation; EXPERT and the Glaucoma Program which use physiological models for the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease; MYCIN, a rule-based program for diagnosis and therapy selection for infectious diseases; the Digitalis Therapy Advisor, which aids the physician in prescribing the right dose of the drug digitalis and also explains its actions; and ABEL, a program that uses multi-level pathophysiologic models for diagnosis of acid-base and electrolyte disorders."

Related Resources

Classic AI papers are listed on this site. Suggestions for additions are welcome.

Books that Laid the Foundation for AI Some of the classics in philosophy, linguistics, science fiction and other fields that have influenced the thinking of AI scientists. Detailed summaries from online catalogues courtesy of Bernard Quaritch Antiquarian Books.

Classic Books -- Looking for Online Versions

The AAAI Press offers several books for sale. Since its inception, the AAAI Press has published more than twenty-five edited or monograph collections. Each year, the Press adds as many as five new titles to the series. Interested authors should consult the author guidelines for information on submitting proposals to the Press for consideration.