[2] The book is intended to explain how computers reason and perceive, and introduce the field of artificial intelligence.

[3]: Preface Cambridge University Press reviewer Tony Owen found the 1984 edition to be complete and suitable for classroom work.

[11] ACM reviewer Doris Appleby commented that the 2nd and 3rd editions were better suited to those working in fields related to Artificial Intelligence.

In this way she felt that Winston had chosen the path of popularizing Artificial Intelligence, making the text more of a general survey.

The procedural English methods (half-English, half-program form) used to describe algorithms and programs in the text were regarded as satisfactory.