Technology leader & entrepreneur, Ashley Nicholson, captures a major shift unfolding in the world of AI education — one that could reshape who gets to participate in the next wave of innovation. With Stanford opening up its most prestigious AI and Machine Learning courses to the public for free, the traditional gatekeeping around elite technical training is beginning to crumble. Here’s her breakdown of why this move matters and how it could change the trajectory of anyone willing to learn:
“The $200,000 Stanford AI degree just became worth a lot less.
Not because the education isn’t world-class, but because Stanford just released all their flagship AI and Machine Learning courses for free on YouTube.
This changes everything about how we learn AI.
1/ The legendary courses are now accessible to everyone for free:
These aren’t watered down versions. These are the exact same courses Stanford charges tens of thousands for:
↳ CS230: Deep Learning
See: https://lnkd.in/dQ-DHdsJ
↳ CS329H: Machine Learning from Human Preferences
See: https://lnkd.in/d_6GzDAr
↳ CS25: Transformers
See: https://lnkd.in/dbMtpim5
↳ CS231N: Deep Learning for Computer Vision
See: https://lnkd.in/djXeGyse
↳ CME295: LLM Evaluation
See: https://lnkd.in/dTPTwh_M
↳ CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch
See: https://lnkd.in/dthjnD7E
2/ Why this matters more than you think:
The AI skills gap isn’t closing because of cost barriers.
↳ Traditional education takes 4+ years and costs a fortune.
↳ Most professionals can’t afford to go back to school.
↳ By the time you graduate, the field has already moved on.
Stanford just eliminated the biggest barrier to AI education.
3/ The real opportunity here:
You don’t need a Stanford degree to work in AI anymore.
You need Stanford level knowledge.
And that knowledge is now free.
The question isn’t whether you can afford AI education.
It’s whether you can afford not to take advantage of it.
What’s stopping you from diving into AI learning now that these barriers are gone?“
© Ashley Nicholson 2025