Reviews of Books

The Japanese Fif-t,h Generation Project appears to be only a stimulus for this book. Clearly it is an important stimulus, and the book describes it in considerable detail as it covers both technical and managerial/social aspects of the Japanese project. But the book goes much beyond a description and an evaluation of the Fifth Generation Project In building the background of the project's significance, the book describes the current state of work in artificial intelligence (AI) in the US and abroad, it outlines the history of AI, it, focuses on developments in Expert Systems, it comments on the social and political environment in which AI is growing, and it provides glimpses of the type of future that AI may help us to create. Also, the relative state of industrial development in Japan and t,he US are analyzed, and many observations are made about styles of planning, value systems, and attitudes to education in the two countries. The book conveys very well the sense of intellectual excitement that characterizes work in AI, and the variety of viewpoints (and concerns) within the field about the possible impact on our lives of mass-produced knowledge technology.