Got this from my dad for xmas, just finished reading. I would highly advise anyone interested in helping people via their programs, to read this book.
"Bravo! I cannot think of a better way for a developer to first learn these algorithms and methods, nor can I think of a better way for me (an old AI dog) to reinvigorate my knowledge of the details." -- Dan Russell, Google
http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intell ... 730&sr=1-1
Written by Stuart Russel, Ph. D (stanford) & Peter Norvig director of search quality at Google, previous head of computation sciences division at NASA
Background in linear algebra, probability and just overall interest in numerals seems to be another prerequisite