100,000+ Sign Up For Stanford’s Open Class on Artificial Intelligence. Classes With 1 Million+ Next?

A groundbreaking change has struck academia, and its reverberations may be felt for years to come. One of Stanford’s first full courses to ever be openly made available online has gone viral. In a matter of weeks it has signed up more than 100,000 students from around the world! Even as I wrote this article, another 5000 joined! As news of the course continues to spread, the ultimate size of the class could reach greater epic proportions – we could easily see interest skyrocket to 200,000 or even 300,000 or more....

The secret to professors and teaching staff handling such an unheard of number of attendees lies in the subject of the class itself: artificial intelligence. This fall, Stanford professors Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun will offer their ever popular Introduction to AI for free on the internet. Norvig and Thrun, leaders in artificial intelligence, will be using automated systems to help them at every level of the massive endeavor, from deciding which questions to answer to grading final exams.

Anyone can sign up, watch lectures, have their homework graded, and take the exams. Everyone who passes will receive a certificate verifying their completion of the course and marking how they ranked compared to others in the class, including the Stanford students who’ll be attending in person. Check out the videos from Norvig and Thrun below to see what the course will be all about...