• Stanford is Offering a Free Online Intro to AI Course
    41 replies, posted
[RELEASE] [IMG]http://spectrum.ieee.org/image/1903534[/IMG] Stanford has been offering portions of its robotics coursework online for a few years now, but professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig are kicking things up a notch (okay, lots of notches) with next semester's CS221: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. For the first time, you can take this course, along with several hundred Stanford undergrads, without having to fill out an application, pay tuition, or live in a dorm. This is more than just downloading materials and following along with a live stream; you're actually going to have to do all the same work as the Stanford students. There's a book you'll need to get. There will be at least 10 hours per week of studying, along with weekly graded homework assignments. The professors will be available to answer your questions. You can look forward to a midterm exam and final exam. If you survive, you'll get a certificate of completion from the instructors, along with a final grade that you can compare to the grades of all those supersmart kids at Stanford. You won't technically earn credits for the course unless you're a Stanford student, but for all practical purposes, you'll be getting the exact same knowledge and experience -- transmitted directly to you by none other than two living Jedis of modern AI. Thrun, director of the Stanford AI Lab, led the team that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and, more recently, he helped develop the Google self-driving car. Norvig, a former scientist at Sun and NASA, is now director of research at Google and co-author of the leading textbook on AI. Here's how it will all work: Anyone can sign up for the course online. It starts on October 2nd and lasts 10 weeks. Each 75 minute lecture (there are two per week) gets videotaped and chopped up into 15 minute chunks that you can stream whenever you want, and homework, quizzes, and exams are all digitized and completed over the internet. Professor Thrun gave us a few more details: [QUOTE]Grading will be automated. But we are recording video specifically to help students who got the answers wrong. We will use the exact same questions for everyone, including the Stanford students. In this way we can actually compare how well everyone is doing. We will use something akin to Google Moderator to make sure Peter and I answer the most pressing questions. Our hypothesis is that even in a class of 10,000, there will only be a fixed number of really interesting questions (like 15 per week). There exist tools to find them.[/QUOTE] As of yesterday, which is only the third day that the course has been available, over 10,000 students are already signed up, and since enrollment is open until September 10th, it's entirely possible that a couple hundred thousand people could end up taking this course. Sounds daunting, but professor Thrun is optimistic about the whole thing: [QUOTE]I am very excited. Teaching many students online has always been my dream. This quarter I get to affect more students than in my entire career before. And yes, we are already beyond my expectations, just 3 days in.[/QUOTE] You can sign up for yourself at the link below, and keep up to date through the class Twitter feed here. [ [URL=http://www.ai-class.com/]Introduction to Artificial Intelligence[/URL] ] [/RELEASE] Source: [url]http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/you-you-can-take-stanfords-intro-to-ai-course-next-quarter-for-free[/url]
I'm game. Let's see how well I compare to Stanford students. Let's go Penn State!
There you go sobotnik now you can start building your ideal government
Pretty awesome, but I don't think I'll do it myself. All you get is a certificate that basically means nothing. You're better off actually taking... a real course, unless you want to do it for purely knowledge purposes and not for any recognition.
[QUOTE=Collin665;31630029]Pretty awesome, but I don't think I'll do it myself. All you get is a certificate that basically means nothing. You're better off actually taking... a real course, unless you want to do it for purely knowledge purposes and not for any recognition.[/QUOTE] I'm signing up because it appears there is literally 0 downside, and so if I don't like it or do poorly I don't have to continue.
Dude. This is such an awesome idea. I'd do it if I didn't already have a (probably pretty hard) uni course lined up.
[QUOTE=melonmonkey;31630044]I'm signing up because it appears there is literally 0 downside, and so if I don't like it or do poorly I don't have to continue.[/QUOTE] A. the time it will take for you to do it That is pretty much the downside. 10 hours+ of studying per week for a little piece of paper saying, "HURR DURR U DID GOOD LOL!" isn't worth it to me.
[QUOTE=Collin665;31630234]A. the time it will take for you to do it That is pretty much the downside. 10 hours+ of studying per week for a little piece of paper saying, "HURR DURR U DID GOOD LOL!" isn't worth it to me.[/QUOTE] That and the fact you have to buy a book for it.
What are the pre-requisites? I know no programming languages or anything like that.
that's pretty interesting
Well, I know Common Lisp and I'm already 20% through the PAIP so I guess it can't possibly be [I]that[/I] hard. If Eliezer Yudkowsky never went to high school and people call him an AI researcher, I can do it too!
[QUOTE=Collin665;31630234]A. the time it will take for you to do it That is pretty much the downside. 10 hours+ of studying per week for a little piece of paper saying, "HURR DURR U DID GOOD LOL!" isn't worth it to me.[/QUOTE] gee if only you gained some sort of intangible benefit by studying a subject 10 hours a week??? naaaaw
I've signed up. Should be really interesting; and if it's not, no harm in stopping. Win win
[QUOTE=Flon22;31637016]I've signed up. Should be really interesting; and if it's not, no harm in stopping. Win win[/QUOTE] Unless it's interesting at first to drag you in and then after weeks of commitment you realize it's not that interesting at all.
but then you can just quit, not like you'll lose money
Can any of us even apply this anywhere?
Fucking A. I'm totally going to check into this. This sounds fucking AWESOME! The bragging rights would be immense.
we need a list of FP members who are doing this
I want this, I want this so bad. I doubt I'll be able to get the textbook though. [editline]10th August 2011[/editline] Also, why do I have a feeling there are going to be many PenisButts taking this course?
[QUOTE=Zeke129;31630006]There you go sobotnik now you can start building your ideal government[/QUOTE] Please one step at a time. Small scale on say.. a restaurant manager AI.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;31640528]i just made radiant ai! [editline]9th August 2011[/editline] that was such a dumb story[/QUOTE] The guy who wrote it reminds me of the writer of... ATLANTIUM
All of my high school's top 10 students applied here. They all got denied.
This looks really awesome! Wish I could take it, but I already got a pile of classes I need to take for College this Fall Semester :(. I hope they do a Summer course next year, that would be amazing!
I find this concept art to be totally lame and cheesy. [img]http://spectrum.ieee.org/image/1903534[/img]
Fuck that, I had enough trouble in intro to c++
I bet it's gonna be 1000x less cool than everyone thinks. Everyone's gonna sign up for it and be like 'All right AI!' and 'Oh cool a Stanford course' and soon they will realize why Stanford is offering this course and not the university that they themselves are (Or aren't) attending.
[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;31642780]I bet it's gonna be 1000x less cool than everyone thinks. Everyone's gonna sign up for it and be like 'All right AI!' and 'Oh cool a Stanford course' and soon they will realize why Stanford is offering this course and not the university that they themselves are (Or aren't) attending.[/QUOTE] And then those people will quit and the rest will gain valuable experience in basic AI technologies. It's free college education - it couldn't be any cooler.
Self-teaching master race, I'm fairly intelligent by have always hated being in a classroom, having to write down everything the teacher's saying, waiting for them to move on from something I find simple that someone else doesn't get, not taking time over something I find complex or interesting, teaching yourself at your own pace is the way to go if you ask me.
Honestly I would do it, sounds like a interesting course, but fuck taking the test/exam's if it doesn't count for any transfer credits.
Going to do it along with my Computer Science next year!
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