Intelligent agents are employed as the central characters in this new introductory text. Beginning with elementary reactive agents Nilsson gradually increases their cognitive horsepower to illustrate the most important and lasting ideas in AI. Neural networks genetic programming computer vision heuristic search knowledge representation and reasoning Bayes networks planning and language understanding are each revealed through the growing capabilities of these agents. The book provides a refreshing and motivating new synthesis of the field by one of AI s master expositors and leading researchers. Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis takes the reader on a complete tour of this intriguing new world of AI.