This book gives an in-depth treatment of the latest results in a selection of core topics of AI. Its aim is to make available to students and practitioners active in AI those results in a form suitable for people who are already informed about the basics of AI. The treatment is in tutorial form, and the material originates from the series of Advanced Courses in AI that are regularly offered by the European Coordinating Committee for AI. The topics treated are Learning Systems, Planning, Automated Deduction, Qualitative Reasoning, Knowledge Engineering, Natural Language Understanding, and AI Programming. Through reading this book the interested reader will gain a clearer understanding and better perspective of a rapidly evolving field.