Free Stanford Artificial Intelligence Class Draws 70K Students

A free online course at Stanford on artificial intelligence has attracted more than 70,000 students from around the world.

The class, taught by professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, will offer an introduction to artificial intelligence and offer the same materials and testing as the offline course.

“Many years ago, when I was a young student in Germany, there were no classes on artificial intelligence that I could take, and understanding the field was really difficult,” said Professor Thrun in a video posted Sunday.

Thrun helped develop Google's driverless car after leading the development of Stanley, an autonomous car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Norvig, who is Director of Research at Google, led the computational sciences division of NASA and authored the textbook Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

“We have been absolutely ecstatic about the many many of you who are up to take this challenging class,” said Thrun.

The class is one of three being offered free by Stanford Computer Science this fall, and has already attracted high school students and retirees, according to the New York Times.

“If you haven’t already done so, sign up now, and get ready for a deep and fascinating journey into the field of AI,” said Thrun.