john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Online education and Silicon Valley

Sat, 2012-06-16 10:01 -- John Hawks

The Wall Street Journal profiles computer scientist and AI researcher Sebastian Thrun. The interview discusses his online education startup, Udacity:

In the midst of this, there was a slight hitch, Mr. Thrun says. "I had forgotten to tell Stanford about it. There was my authority problem. Stanford said 'If you give the same exams and the same certificate of completion [as Stanford does], then you are really messing with what certificates really are. People are going to go out with the certificates and ask for admission [at the university] and how do we even know who they really are?' And I said: I. Don't. Care."

The article also discusses his ongoing collaborations with Google on AI projects.

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