Description:
The title of this impressive book is somewhat oblique. What the author really offers is an introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) programming using examples that also teach you Java. Watson begins with a short introduction to artificial intelligence, dividing AI systems into two major categories: symbol-processing systems and neural networks. Examples of each are amply covered in the course of the book. The first section describes the development of the Java class libraries that will serve as building blocks when you construct your applications. These libraries include a portable user interface class, flexible frame data structures, and neural-network and genetic-algorithm simulation classes. Chapters on natural language processing and AI agents show you how to use these techniques to automate tasks such as e-mail processing and gathering information from the Web. Once you've created these basic tools, Watson shows you how to use them to build applications. His examples include a scrolling arcade game, a real-time handwriting recognition program, a distributed natural language processing system that can answer questions about history, and a Java-based data collection agent for the Internet. The author assumes that you know Java programming basics, although he provides a short tutorial in an appendix that will be helpful if you're coming to Java from C or C++. The bundled CD-ROM contains the source code for all projects in the book.
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