
Official enrollment for Stanford's online AI class has begun - epenn
https://www.ai-class.com/registration/
======
amirmc
If you've signed up for these classes, how about letting others know here?
Perhaps we might be able to form ad-hoc groups to help each other when we're
stuck?

If I've missed this suggestion in another thread, please let me know.

In the meantime, I've made a google spreadsheet so please add your details if
you want to find other HN readers taking part. <http://bit.ly/pLCRzg>

Edit: Also found this on reddit - <http://www.reddit.com/r/aiclass>

~~~
clyfe
There is also this doc from a previous talk
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq06GgDrF8g3dFR...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq06GgDrF8g3dFRZRktDLWRPWHB0NDYxRjhtY0xuQ3c&hl=en_US#gid=0)
we should combine, not fragment. The sheet from your post is to be preferred
since it's more structured.

~~~
clyfe
Should it be more feasible to make a google group ?

------
Panoramix
I don't know whether to take this course or the machine learning one. The both
seem very interesting, but I only have time for one. I don't care much about
robots, and was partly sold by Ng's separating music from background. OTOH I
want to learn Bayes networks and natural language processing. I'd appreciate
any advice.

~~~
sambe
I know that I hardly have time for one of them, but greedily want to try all
three. I wonder if there is an expectation for the course to be available
again, or at least provide the full materials afterwards. And if there is a
penalty for failing/dropping out of them due to time constraints.

~~~
webspiderus
You can find some of the materials for last year's ML class at
<http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs229/>. CS 221 had a similar one, although it
got taken down recently. I imagine you'd at the very least be able to access
the materials while the class is ongoing or shortly thereafter for archival
purposes.

------
jetbean
Interesting, did anyone who subscribed receive any news via email about the
registration being opened ? I didn't.

~~~
shubble
I got no mail, and was signed up for ai, ml, db. It seems only ai is open to
registration so far, perhaps to get an idea of demand and discover bugs...

------
knarf55
I love how stanford is doing this for the public -- especially empowering
those who really can't afford a degree but really want to enrich their
education desires. +1 to Stanford for pushing this and the instructors and TAs
who will be dedicating their time to make this happen.

On a side note, I'm deciding to take this class or the ML one. In my line of
work, I do believe that the ML class will be more beneficial but the AI one
seems way more interesting.

------
AlexC04
Does anyone have a link to the other classes? I see from the spreadsheet there
are DB (database?) and ML (machine language?) classes as well ?

~~~
clyfe
<http://ml-class.com/> <http://db-class.com/>

------
jmspring
I've signed up for the AI class. It should be interesting to revisit the topic
after taking it several years ago with Bob Levinson @ UCSC. There, a good deal
of the focus was on Lisp and playing Chess.

I'm likely to sign up for the ML one as well.

------
brosephius
I like that they separated it into basic/advanced, originally I was thinking
of signing up and skipping the homework when I didn't have free time for it,
but now I can just do the basic and not feel bad :)

------
swah
Are we gonna do this? I took AI in college but it was so-so, and I was
thinking about doing this again. Anyone in a similar situation?

~~~
weaksauce
Yes I'm in the same boat as you. My AI wasn't taught by Norvig in college(
though he was a pretty good professor) so it might be interesting to see a
different opinion on what "intro to AI" should consist of. I'm also interested
in what the delivery system is going to be like. This might be the way courses
are offered in the future.

~~~
webspiderus
having taken an AI class (using AIMA) at my undergrad college, I can't say
that Norvig co-teaching the class made it all that different - probably the
most interesting difference was being able to hear him (and Thrun) talk about
real-world applications of the concepts we were covering, be it in Google
products or Stanford research.

------
steve_b
Is there a way to buy a pdf version of the text? From the links at
<http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/> I got:

CourseSmart: eTextbook rental. Amazon: Kindle version. Nook: eTextbook. not
sure if I can download pdf cause you have to sign up to find out. Cafe Scribe:
cafe scribe format. Kno: format only works on iPad.

Edited for formatting.

~~~
kroger
And does anybody know why the kindle version is not available outside the USA?
I'd prefer to buy the kindle version, but since I can't I'm thinking about
buying at Kno. Any experiences with it?

Edit: WTF? I just discovered that the Kno ipad App is not available outside
USA as well (at least not in my location).

------
allanchao
I can't find any list of prerequisites for this class, though their FAQ
<https://www.ai-class.com/registration/faq> implies that there are some. Does
anyone know if this class is noob friendly? (as in someone with no CS or
programming background)

~~~
weaksauce
Doubt it's going to be too hard but maybe not noob friendly. The "basic" level
of the class at least should be accessible for the most part. It will cover
some probability theory in the beginning so if you have a grasp of that
already but forgot it this will help. It looks like machine learning is going
to be a larger focus than in the AI class I took so you will need to know
linear algebra as well.

Here: <http://robots.stanford.edu/cs221/> is the outline with the prereqs and
the schedule of topics.

------
zachgalant
There are a lot of Stanford CS classes available online. Here's a list of the
best ones according to Stanford CS majors -
<http://raunk.com/list/669,682,1364,2394,2395?filter=4,5>

------
vibragiel
Does anyone know approximately how much dedication would this course require
(in hours per week)?

~~~
mas644
It depends on your background (CS and math are very very useful) and which
track you're going for (standard vs advanced). I believe Norvig & Russell's
textbook is being used for the class, which is the standard for AI classes at
universities and a FANTASTIC textbook. If you skim through it, you can get an
idea. I took a similar class in grad school with the same text (I'm a CS
major) and sometimes spent 2 hours in a week...sometimes 15. It depends on
what you're good at and how much detail they go into.

------
drieddust
This book looks interesting but there is no review on Amazon.

<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0750676183>

I was wondering if someone can comment on the suitability of this book?

------
sliverstorm
Does anyone know why the class is only something like 8 weeks long? Stanford
is on a semester system, and even in the quarter system classes are 10 weeks.

~~~
dlo
Stanford is on the quarter system. You can check out their academic calendar
online.

[http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/academic-
calend...](http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/academic-
calendar-1112)

~~~
sliverstorm
Whoops.

------
shazam
I'm all for the increasing availability of free online education, but it's
interesting to note I'm paying 50 grand (partially) for this...

~~~
webspiderus
I think there's no doubt that you'll have much more resources at your disposal
(like proper office hours) if you are actually enrolled at Stanford.

if nothing else, part of your 50 grand is also paying for the fact that our
career fairs are always super crowded :)

~~~
dlo
You better make sure to get your money's worth by picking Norvig and Thrun's
brains at office hours :P. And if you get an A in the course, you can probably
do undergraduate research with them through CURIS, something that online
attendees won't be able to do.

<http://curis.stanford.edu/>

------
Evgeny
The "terms and conditions" checkbox was not enabling the "Register" button for
me under IE7.

It works under Chrome though.

~~~
cshesse
Try using IE9 instead

------
steve_b
I signed up. I'm guessing that we don't have to write the exams in person.
Does anyone know?

~~~
amirmc
_"The exams will be offered within a 24 hour period around Nov 19/20 (midterm
exam) and Dec 17/18 (final exam). ... The actual exams will only take 4 hours
and there is flexibility when you start the exam within these dates, but once
you begin you must complete the exam in 4 hours"_

I don't think anyone's expecting to take these in person.

------
alanmeaney
This is a great idea. I've signed up to the DB class. Looking forward to
getting started!

------
mjainit
There is one Q-A community for this class at aiqus.com

~~~
clyfe
Clicky <http://www.aiqus.com/>

------
chegra
I'm in...

------
klaut
just signed up!

------
cyphersanctus
im in :)

------
ansy
Why does this require students to submit a birthday? This seems like an
unnecessary disclosure of personal information.

~~~
benhamner
I imagine they want demographic data on who's taking the course. If you were
running a large-scale education experiment, wouldn't you want to be able to
measure how things are going and account for variables such as gender, age,
and education level? I bet they are going to look at location as well, via IP
addresses.

~~~
charlieok
...and as we just learned, this is enough info to uniquely identify you, even
without your name :)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2942967>

