I’m very interested in the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and am currently out of light reading. What are some good books out there where the topic of AI figures prominently?
One exclusion: no dry, boring crap from Minsky or any other researcher. I’m involved in the field, and I’m sick of reading that all day. I’m talking good, purely speculative fiction. As examples, I’ve already read Neuromancer and I, Robot, amoung others. I’ve also seen 2001, but haven’t read it.
As a side note, novels that don’t involve the AI/AIs in question trying to destroy mankind get bonus points.
Supertoys Last All Summer Long, Supertoys In Winter, Supertoys When Spring Comes, short-stories by Brian Aldiss recentloy collected in an anthology named AI.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlen.
More Asimov robot novels and collections.
Try Fritz Leiber’s The Silver Eggheads. It’s a real hoot.
Men, Martians & Machines by Eric Frank Russell is rather dated in some respects, but it does have a great robotic character.
Asimov wrote 3 very good novels about two detectives: Elijah Bailey, a human, and R. Daneel Olivaw. They are The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.
If you can find some old collections, Henry Kuttner, with and without his wife C.L. Moore, wrote some good robot stories, especially “Piggy Bank.”
The Ender series by Orson Scott Card.
It isn’t exactly fiction of the sort you mean, but have you ever played the Infocom Interactive Fiction title A Mind Forever Voyaging?
It’s great, though in terms of storytelling it does fall a bit flat in the end.
You should be able to find it online without too much trouble, but I won’t tell ya where as it’d prolly get me in trouble.
InquisitiveIdiot, you may be interested in some suggestions in the recent thread Best sci-fi portrayal of human-robot relationships?
“When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One” by David Gerrold.
Anne McCafrey’s “The Ship Who Sang,” and others in that series.
“Question” by Fredric Brown 
Most any of Iain Banks “Culture” novels involve extremely high-end AIs known as “Minds” and lesser AIs (but still quite advanced) called “Drones”. They feature prominently in Excession and one is a major character in Look to Windward but they show up in most of the books.