"There are several AI textbooks on the market at the moment with the same target audience but one of these books-by Russell and Norvig-is dominant, almost completely so, and is used in approximately 1100 universities in 100 countries. Over the years, I have taught from earlier editions of the texts by Luger and by Rich, Knight, and Nair. Like many, I switched to the text by Russell and Norvig (hereafter R&N) shortly after the first edition came out in 1995. R&N is an excellent and highly regarded text. Yet after more than a decade of teaching through three editions of R&N, I recently switched from R&N to the new text by Poole and Mackworth (hereafter P&M). Let me explain why. R&N has aimed at being comprehensive and is not as selective. The result, I believe, is that the book has become overly long and less integrated and less useful to the average student.

Some topics and chapters in R&N contain much more material than can reasonably be covered in an introductory course that aims for breadth (as many AI courses are structured). The result is often unsatisfying for the instructor and students find it difficult to wade through the extra material to find what is relevant for their course. P&M, in contrast, is more selective in its coverage. In summary, I highly recommend this book to instructors of introductory AI courses and to those who wish to learn about the foundations of the field through self-study. As many will be aware, there is already an excellent textbook by Russell and Norvig with the same target audience that has dominated the field for more than ten years. However, all things considered-selective coverage, level of detail, quality of explanations, exercises, online materials, free availability, and so on-I believe the clear advantage goes to the newcomer. Certainly the book sets a new standard for AI textbooks with its supplementary online tools and tutorials." Peter van Beek, University of Waterloo, AI Journal.