Stanford recently announced that they are making several courses available online and free to the world. These aren’t just the usual pre-recorded YouTube style classes, but instead are run just like any other e-learning course, except in this case, to potentially hundreds of thousands of people. They say the courses will have scheduled classes, homework, feedback on your work, and even a certificate of achievement from Stanford University for completing the course.
The following two AI related courses are being offered in this online program:
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
This course offers a general introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence. It is put on by two pretty interesting teachers; Sebastian Thrun a professor from Stanford and Peter Norvig who is Director of Research at Google. A lot of the hype around this course is likely due to those who are teaching it. At the time of this writing, there are 135,643 people registered for more information on the course. It says that signup is “temporarily unavailable”, likely due to overwhelming demand. More information on this class can be found at http://www.ai-class.com/.
Introduction to Machine Learning
The concept of machine learning in this course has to do with machines that learn information or concepts which were not explicitly programmed in. At the time of this writing, there are 38,886 people signed up for additional information about the Machine Learning course. The course is taught by professor Andrew Ng and covers many of the common machine learning concepts from theory to practical implementation. The course description and a place to sign up for more details can be found at http://www.ml-class.com/.
Two very interesting classes that may interest AI enthusiasts all over the world. A great move by Stanford to try what they’ve called a “bold experiment in distributed education”. The fact that it focuses on AI and machine learning makes it even better.