This short book is intended to be an easy to read reference to a person that is just learning about artificial intelligence. It is definitely not for people that know about the subject. The book is not perfect, because who knows what to stop and start in this complicated arena. There are many people who believe that intelligence is a subject that is related to human being and not to machines. Calling it artificial is not enough. At the Dartmouth conference in 1956, Simon and Newell suggested "Complex Information Processing." Perhaps, that could have been a better name for a new specialist discipline. There are many books already published on artificial intelligence, and for the most part, they are very good. My guess is that there are about 300 of them, and there is not a bad one in the bunch. The really good books, for the specialist, are had to read for people not in the field of artificial intelligence. What about the poor joe that just wants to find out what going on and wants to keep his or her job. What about the executive that just wants to make sure his charge is heading in the right direction. What about the person that wants to buy a gift for someone that might want to know about artificial intelligence but is afraid to ask. This book is form you. This book is easy to read with dialog interspersed. If you find out you don't like the subject matter, you always have the novel. There is another consideration. There is a primer included. You could reader the primer first and then solidify your knowledge by reading the first part. The entire volume has no violence, no sex, and no bad language, so your son or daughter could read mommy or daddy's book. You could also give it to a friend. For what you get, the price is right. Thank you got buying the book.