Machine learning: Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Chris Bishop
Good Bayesian basis, clear exposition (though sometimes quite terse), very good coverage of the most modern techniques. Also thorough and precise, while covering a huge amount of material. Compared to AI: A modern approach it is much more clearly based in Bayesian statistics, and compared to Probabilistic robotics it’s much more modern.
Bishop, vs Russell & Norvig, are not in the same category. There’s only two chapters in R&N that overlap with Bishop.
Within the category of planning, symbolic AI, and agent-based AI, I recommend Russell & Norvig, “Artificial Ingelligence: A Modern Approach”, or Luger & Stubblefield, “Artificial Intelligence”. They are aware of non-symbolic approaches and some of the tradeoffs involved. I do not recommend Charniak & McDermott, “An intro to artificial intelligence”, or Nilsson, “Principles of artificial intelligence”, or Winston, “Artificial Intelligence”, as they go into too much detail about symbolic techniques that you’ll probably never use, like alpha-beta pruning, and say nothing about non-symbolic techniques. A more complete treatement of symbolic AI is Barr & Feigenbaum, “The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence”, but that’s a reference work, and I’m recommending textbooks. I do recommend a symbolic AI reference work, Shapiro, “Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence”, because the essays are reasonably short and easy to read.
Within machine learning, data mining, and pattern recognition, I haven’t read Bishop’s work. Mannila & Smyth, “Principles of Data Mining”, are often used; but maybe just because they’re from MIT. Larose, “Data mining methods and models”, is okay, as is its companion volumne whose name I forget. My favorite is Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques (Second Edition), by Ian H. Witten and Eibe Frank. It is brief, to the point, and gives coding examples using Weka.
The best advice I can give related to statistical modeling is to look up your technique in the SAGE series, and buy the SAGE books on it. They cost about $16 apiece, less used on amazon, and are short yet detailed. Now, I don’t mean the books SAGE tries to sell you on their website. I mean the series of about 200 small light-green-cover paperbacks that they for some reason don’t tell you about on their website.
But if you’re reading this level of detail, it means you’re going to be a specialist trying to implement or improve algorithms, and you’re going to need to read entire books on each subject.
Machine learning: Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Chris Bishop
Good Bayesian basis, clear exposition (though sometimes quite terse), very good coverage of the most modern techniques. Also thorough and precise, while covering a huge amount of material. Compared to AI: A modern approach it is much more clearly based in Bayesian statistics, and compared to Probabilistic robotics it’s much more modern.
Bishop, vs Russell & Norvig, are not in the same category. There’s only two chapters in R&N that overlap with Bishop.
Within the category of planning, symbolic AI, and agent-based AI, I recommend Russell & Norvig, “Artificial Ingelligence: A Modern Approach”, or Luger & Stubblefield, “Artificial Intelligence”. They are aware of non-symbolic approaches and some of the tradeoffs involved. I do not recommend Charniak & McDermott, “An intro to artificial intelligence”, or Nilsson, “Principles of artificial intelligence”, or Winston, “Artificial Intelligence”, as they go into too much detail about symbolic techniques that you’ll probably never use, like alpha-beta pruning, and say nothing about non-symbolic techniques. A more complete treatement of symbolic AI is Barr & Feigenbaum, “The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence”, but that’s a reference work, and I’m recommending textbooks. I do recommend a symbolic AI reference work, Shapiro, “Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence”, because the essays are reasonably short and easy to read.
Within machine learning, data mining, and pattern recognition, I haven’t read Bishop’s work. Mannila & Smyth, “Principles of Data Mining”, are often used; but maybe just because they’re from MIT. Larose, “Data mining methods and models”, is okay, as is its companion volumne whose name I forget. My favorite is Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques (Second Edition), by Ian H. Witten and Eibe Frank. It is brief, to the point, and gives coding examples using Weka.
The best advice I can give related to statistical modeling is to look up your technique in the SAGE series, and buy the SAGE books on it. They cost about $16 apiece, less used on amazon, and are short yet detailed. Now, I don’t mean the books SAGE tries to sell you on their website. I mean the series of about 200 small light-green-cover paperbacks that they for some reason don’t tell you about on their website.
But if you’re reading this level of detail, it means you’re going to be a specialist trying to implement or improve algorithms, and you’re going to need to read entire books on each subject.