Top Books on AI Fundamentals

February 27, 2026 · View on GitHub

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th Ed. - Russell & Norvig - 2020 - The classic survey of AI: agents, search, logic, probability, and learning.
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning - Christopher M. Bishop - 2006 - Core probabilistic ML foundations with a Bayesian viewpoint — free online.
The Elements of Statistical Learning, 2nd Ed. - Hastie, Tibshirani, Friedman - 2009 - Deep statistical learning theory — a reference you'll keep returning to — free online.
An Introduction to Statistical Learning, 2nd Ed. - James, Witten, Hastie, Tibshirani, Taylor - 2021 - Friendlier, applied companion to ESL — the best first stats-ML book — free online.
Mathematics for Machine Learning - Deisenroth, Faisal, Ong - 2020 - Linear algebra, calculus, and probability as actually used in ML — free online.