stanford free education

Online Learning

Main navigation, entrepreneurship corner.

A free collection of over 1600 videos and podcasts, featuring lectures by today’s  Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders .

Understand Energy Learning Hub

The content of this popular course at Stanford has been made available to anyone who wants to undertand energy as a complex system that impacts human development, the environment, the economy, equity and justice and more. Go at your own pace.

The Human Experience

An inside look at the humanities at Stanford, along with information on experts, publications, podcasts, videos, and events.

Stanford Center for Professional Development

Find tips and support for navigating online learning as a student, staff, or faculty member.

Stanford Channel on YouTube

Catch up on the latest Stanford news videos and share your favorite courses, lectures and interviews all from within your web browser of choice.

  Stanford d.school

The “d.school”, also known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, is a leading teaching center for design and experiential learning. Students from all 7 Stanford schools take d.school classes as electives. Curious visitors can explore these virtual tour slides .

Stanford’s Free Online Courses

Stanford offers a variety of online learning opportunities, including eleven free online courses from the School of Engineering.

Stanford Health Library

Free health and medical information provided by Stanford Hospitals and Clinics on-line and at five locations.

Stanford on iTunes U

Put Stanford in your pocket. Take courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music and more with you, and enjoy Stanford content when you want it, where you want it.

K-12 Curriculum

Main navigation, this page features k-12 curricula for educators and content for students, developed by stanford researchers., water desalination by electrodialysis.

The simulation applet on this site models water desalination by electrodialysis. With this simulation students can design a process to desalinate brackish water with salinity 7 ppt into drinkable water (no more than 1 ppt) for as little cost per volume as possible.

Virtual Reality Demos

The Virtual Human Interaction Lab offers many free resources and educational tools that use Virtual Reality to explore scientific and cultural issues. Currently available:

• The Crystal Reef (2016)
•   The Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience (2016)
•   Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience (2017)
•   Coral Compass: Fighting Climate Change in Palau (2018)

Microdocs: Short Science Video on Ecological Sustainability

Stanford Marine Biologist Steve Palumbi created a series of 2-4 minute micro-documentaries about sustainability, featuring coral reefs from around the world. His lab then developed additional resources for teachers and students, built around the videos.

The Virtual Urchin Project

The goal of this open access website is to make sea urchin embryos readily accessible through development of inquiry based lessons, available on a freely-accessible, open access website. Students can then move beyond the early embryo, and explore how scientists study sea urchins to understand larval development and metamorphosis, community ecology, pollution in the marine environment and biological evolution. 

Food Science Activities You Can Do At Home

Extended periods of sheltering in place can be challenging for most of us, but especially for those with young children.  Graduate students of the  Stanford Polymer Collective , together with  The Big Nano , are rolling out a series of food science blogs with easy hands-on experiments that use household items to teach students about polymers.  “Home cooking has become the top priority of many households. Since many students are staying at home with their parents, why not make this an outreach opportunity for some food science experiments?”  says Stanford graduate student Rachel Huang, Outreach Officer of Stanford Polymer Collective.  So far, their blog has activities about  Boba pearls ,  Chocolate ,  Hand pulled noodles ,  Foamy (Dalgona) Coffee ,   Angel Food Cake , and  Pop Rock Candy .  They plan to update each week Tuesday and Thursday for the duration of Shelter in Place.  You can follow them on  Twitter  and  Instagram  @TheBigNano1 for future updates. Be safe and healthy!

Climate Change Education Project

This collaborative project supports the teaching of scientifically accurate climate change curriculum developed by climate scientists and education specialists to provide over a dozen curricular units for middle and high school classrooms. 

Squids-4-Kids

Squids-4-Kids provides an exciting hands-on way to engage students of any age. Frozen specimens of Humboldt squid are provided for use in educational activities, providing an outstanding teaching platform for discussing climate change, ecology, anatomy, physiology, oceanography and fisheries science.

Stanford Solar Center Resources for K-12 Teachers and Students

The Stanford Solar Center web site provides a collection of multi-disciplinary, interactive exercises and activities based on the Sun and solar science, most geared to grades 4-12. Each lesson or activity comes with study guides, worksheets and quizzes and all are aligned with the national science teaching standards.

Laboratory Science for Broadened Scientific Inquiry (LABSci)

LABSci develops a science laboratory curriculum for middle school and high school students that are experiencing a non-traditional education environment. These labs were created with the restrictions of a hospital school classroom in mind, but are also suitable for bedside, homeschool, and other environments.

Science in the City

Science in the City is a website designed to provide a community for K-12 educators to explore resources, exchange ideas and hear about our new research findings to improve science teaching by focusing on the intersection between race, language, technology and science learning. Teachers can sort dozens of STEM lessons by topic, grade level or state and each lesson includes a Teacher Lesson Plan, Teacher Slides and Student Handouts.

Sea Urchin Embryology

The drama of fertilization and development is explored by laboratory modules using sea urchin eggs and a website developed by teachers and Stanford researchers.

d.loft STEM Curriculum

The d.loft STEM curriculum units developed by Stanford's Design School provide an integrated approach to building STEM knowledge and skills while engaging students in both identifying and solving real-world problems using a design thinking approach. 

Educator-Designed Design Thinking Curriculum

Need inspiration and ideas for how to incorporate design thinking into your classroom? Browse dozens of curriculum units and lesson plans created by educators who have participated in d.loft workshops.  Curriculum is free and downloadable; most is geared to elementary school students.

shoMe: Place-Based Storytelling

Stanford offers a free, open, online course that will help you develop and deliver field-based educational modules to large numbers of students and non-students through a mobile-device- and web-browser-based platform, shoMe.  The course, titled Place-Based Storytelling, will teach techniques for developing engaging, informative, multimedia stories, and for publishing these stories through the shoMe platform. 

Tobacco Prevention Tool Kit

The Tobacco Prevention Toolkit is a new, theory-based and evidence-informed educational resource created by educators and researchers aimed at preventing middle and high school students’ use of cigarettes, cigars/cigarillos, chew, hookah, and electronic cigarettes. This Toolkit contains a set of modules focused on e-cigarettes and vapes, messages on nicotine addiction, information and resources concerning positive youth development, and school policies that provide information about school tobacco policies and tobacco control efforts.

Space Weather Monitoring Program

The Space Weather Monitor program is an education project to build and distribute inexpensive ionospheric monitors to students around the world. The monitors detect solar flares and other ionospheric disturbances.

Kids and Climate

Researchers from  Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University  and the  Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)  have created an activity book aimed at helping elementary school and early middle school students, in particular 4th-6th graders, to familiarize themselves with the concept of ocean acidification, what causes it, how it occurs, how it affects marine organisms and ecosystems, and what we can do to help mitigate its impacts. The activity book is available for free for teachers and students. 

SCALE Science Curriculum

SCALE Science focuses on developing curriculum that supports student sense-making through project-based learning. Our resources aid teachers in their efforts to effectively respond to student needs, as well as shifts in instructional demands. Units include:

• Learning Through Performance - 6th Grade Curriculum
• Stanford NGSS Integrated 8th Grade Curriculum: An Exploration of a Multidimensional World

Mathematical Optimization - A High School Curriculum

Mathematical Optimization is a high school course in 5 units, comprised of a total of 56 lessons. The first three units are non-Calculus, requiring only a knowledge of Algebra; the last two units require completion of Calculus AB. All of the units make use of the Julia programming language to teach students how to apply basic coding techniques to solve complex and relevant mathematical problems.

K-12 Lab at Stanford Design School

Design Thinking is a methodology that teaches children to creatively solve problems in their lives. This space shares resources to teach design thinking.

SPICE Multidisciplinary Curriculum Materials on International Themes

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) has produced over 100 supplementary curriculum units for K-14 students on Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the global environment, and international political economy. 

These short videotaped biosketches capture the personal pathways of selected Stanford students into the STEM fields. These "near peers" describe their passions, key mentors, challenges, and triumphs that will be of interest to high school students.

Bringing Nanoscience and Nanotechnology into the Classroom

This site contains six hands-on activities to help K-12 students learn about nanotechnology while supporting the California Science Content Standards. 

Polymer Chemistry Demos

Our world and lives are made of molecules, some small and some giant. Join Prof. Xia and two graduate students from Stanford University Chemistry Department, Ashley Leibham and Matias Horst, for fun chemistry demos that teach about how the giant molecules (polymers) around us that impact the world. They present science videos showing how to make a bouncy ball; how to make popping boba; how enzymes, a type of polymer used by living creatures, speed up reactions; and how much energy can be released from polymers when a gummy bear explodes.

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Recognizing the pressing challenges posed by climate change, the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health has partnered with the University of Washington to create this collection of online case studies and skills that clinicians can develop to provide effective care for patients on a changing planet.

Brand new modules tailored specifically to meet the requirements of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) training. These modules are designed to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information on this important topic.

Stanford Medcast is an educational podcast ideal for clinician on the go. Hot topics in medicine, healthcare, and education are discussed with world leading physicians and scientists.

Visit our Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) hub to learn more about how you can promote social justice, support a more inclusive culture of medicine, & offer actionable steps for health equity.

Camp CME aims to bring together leaders and rising stars in CME to exercise strategic planning techniques, share experiences on executing vision, and discover strategies to lead teams in the ever-changing landscape of CME. We invite you to join us at the 2nd Annual Camp CME in Yosemite.

Stanford Medicine Children's Health provides an extensive array of pediatric-focused Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities all year round. These initiatives aim not only to foster the development and maintenance of clinicians' knowledge, skills, and professional performance but also to ensure they stay abreast of the latest advancements and best practices in pediatric care.

Center helps students become self-directed learners

From peer tutoring to individualized academic coaching, Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning has programs and resources to support all students.

In recent years, the Center for Teaching and Learning has expanded its programs, resources, and services to better accommodate ADHD and learning differences. (Image credit: Misha Bruk)

Eshaan Rawat never set foot on campus his entire first year at Stanford. Like most students during the pandemic, he spent the 2020-2021 academic year taking courses virtually – in his case, from his home in Loudoun County, Virginia.

While enrolled in an intro chemistry course that year, he found himself struggling and knew he needed extra help. In addition to attending virtual office hours with his instructor, Rawat heard about peer tutoring offered through Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning and the virtual tutoring drop-in service quickly became a resource helping him navigate the challenges he was having with the course.

“At first, it was tough to ask for help,” Rawat said. “But CTL offers a good mix if you’re scared to schedule an appointment, because those are one-on-one and can be a little intimidating. The drop-ins are great because even if you go by yourself, there are still other students there.”

Approaching its 50-year milestone at Stanford, CTL offers diverse programs and resources to undergrads, designed to teach transferable academic skills, create a safe space to take intellectual risks, and help all students, including graduate students, become self-directed learners. Students can take advantage of peer tutoring, academic coaching, and language conversation partners programs. Given its substantial support for both student communities, CTL is housed in both VPUE as well as the Vice Provost for Graduate Education office.

Tim Randazzo, senior director of CTL’s Student Learning Programs, said it’s become increasingly important for students to understand that many of their peers are also asking for help.

“A common mindset I’ve seen among students who are really struggling is they feel like they’re the only one – they feel like something is wrong with them,” said Randazzo. “It’s hard to ask for help because it feels like an acknowledgment that they must not belong at Stanford.”

“A common mindset I’ve seen among students who are really struggling is they feel like they’re the only one – they feel like something is wrong with them.” —Tim Randazzo Senior Director, CTL Student Learning Programs

Throughout the year, CTL offers individually tailored academic coaching to any student who asks for help. Academic coaches provide personalized one-on-one guidance to students, assisting them in developing and refining academic strategies, achieving school-life balance, and offering encouragement as they implement new ways of learning. Topics may vary throughout the quarter and generally include: overcoming procrastination, note-taking skills, combating anxiety, reviewing exams, and planning for writing a paper.

“[Students sometimes] think all of their peers are doing really well on their own and don’t need any help,” Randazzo said. “But the truth of the matter is hundreds of students come to our programs every quarter. That’s over a thousand students who go to tutoring or academic coaching every year.”

CTL also offers the highly popular Language Conversation Partners (LCPs) program in which students practice speaking in another language with peers trained to help them improve their speaking skills in a low-stress setting. Languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. The program is designed to help students meet the oral proficiency objectives of language courses, so students must be enrolled in a course at the Stanford Language Center (a -LANG course) to use the LCPs.

Support for neurodiverse students, including specifically tailored programs, resources, coaching, and tutoring services has also expanded in recent years. Students participating in the ADHD and Learning Differences Support Program, for example, are personally assigned an academic coach and/or tutor who has been trained to work with students with ADHD or learning differences. And CTL is hiring more staff specialists to accommodate this growing need.

“For these students, it can be really helpful to have the consistency of knowing: This is my tutor, and they understand my learning difference,” Randazzo said.

For students struggling with specific course concepts or problem sets, Randazzo recommends CTL’s peer tutoring program, which is available to all undergraduates. The program enables students to partner with a peer and break down course materials, prepare for upcoming exams, or brainstorm and strategize general studying techniques. Peers are available for biology/bioengineering, chemistry, CME, computer science, economics, engineering, human biology, math, physics, and statistics.

Rawat, now a senior chemical engineering major, not only pushed through his first-year chemistry course, he’s currently in his second year peer tutoring fellow undergrads.

“We’re all undergrads, so we’ve been in the same boat that you are,” Rawat said. “Maybe one year ago, maybe two years ago. And we understand the plight of students. So when a student comes to me for the first time and they’re like ‘this biochem midterm was so hard,’ I’m thinking back to my biochem midterm two years ago – it was really hard for me, too.”

As Rawat approaches his own graduation, he said it’s been a rewarding experience working as a CTL peer tutor.

“I am making a difference with the people that I’m able to work with and I feel really proud about that every time.”

Main navigation

• Graduate School of Education

Gain a substantial introduction to education through a broad-based and focused study of educational research, theory and practice.

What You'll Study

The Graduate School of Education awards an undergraduate minor in the field of Education. The minor is structured to provide a substantial introduction to education through a broad-based and focused study of educational research, theory and practice. The goals of the minor are to allow undergraduates to develop an understanding of the core issues facing educators and policymakers, to make connections to their major programs of study, and to provide rigorous preparation for graduate studies in Education.

An honors program in Education is available to undergraduates to supplement their regular majors by applying their studies to the field of education, broadly conceived. This program enables qualified undergraduates at Stanford to extend the training in their major field of study by pursuing additional courses and a research thesis in a related area in the study of education.

Degrees Offered 

• Interdisciplinary Honors

More Information

Learn more about Education in the Stanford Bulletin

• Explore IntroSems related to this major

Exploratory Courses

Educ 103a.

Tutoring: Seeing a Child through Literacy (EDUC 203A)

EDUC 103B

Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms: Sociocultural Theory and Practices (AFRICAAM 106, CSRE 103B, EDUC 337)

EDUC 115N

Mathematical Mindsets - The Interplay of Identity & Knowledge in Learning & Life

EDUC 118S

Designing Your Stanford (ME 104S)

EDUC 171

Preschool Counts: Engaging Young Children in Math

EDUC 177A

Well-Being in Immigrant Children & Youth: A Service Learning Course (CHILATST 177A, CSRE 177E, HUMBIO 29A)

EDUC 177B

Well-Being in Immigrant Children & Youth: A Service Learning Course (CHILATST 177B, CSRE 177F)

EDUC 203A

Tutoring: Seeing a Child through Literacy (EDUC 103A)

Stanford’s Code in Place introductory programming course offers a new model for large-scale interactive learning

What began as an online class on coding during the pandemic has morphed into an effective model for creating learning opportunities worldwide, outside of a formal classroom.

First launched in 2020 , the six-week Code in Place course teaches fundamentals from Stanford’s flagship introduction to Python programming course, CS106A. The unique course design facilitates instruction entirely online with six weeks of Stanford-led lectures, assignments, and smaller-group sections led by volunteer teachers. After repeat versions in 2021 and 2023 , Code in Place is back this spring for its fourth iteration. 

Chris Piech , assistant professor of computer science at Stanford Engineering, co-created the project with colleague Mehran Sahami , professor and the Tencent Chair of the Computer Science Department. While Stanford professors teach the main lectures, volunteer teachers from across industries and geographies lead smaller sections, which have about 10 students each. 

Piech believes this community-powered teaching and learning model can be open-sourced. His research on this type of course design has found that people who are teaching the material are better able to learn it and have more fun doing it than other approaches to learning. Foothill College, also in the San Francisco Bay Area, is now using the Code in Place platform to teach one of its courses.

This year, Code in Place lectures will be available in Spanish; there will be better error messages in the instruction to help guide students; and learners will get feedback on the style of their code – not just the accuracy. In addition to the usual guided instruction option, the course will also be offered in a self-guided format that can be done on one’s own schedule.

For section leader Sara Thomas, last year’s experience allowed her to teach a subject she previously learned herself as a college student in Canada. Thomas, a third-year double major in computer science and environmental science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, believes Code in Place is building a global community for people with similar interests where there is a safe space to ask questions and learn from others.

“A lot of times, especially in computer science, you can learn on your own,” Thomas said. “But it’s kind of hard to know what the solution is or if yours is good, and there’s probably a better way of doing it.”

So far, more than 30,000 learners have gone through Code in Place, which has had the support of about 3,000 section leaders. Discussion forums allow learners to ask questions 24/7 and peers all around the world can help answer.

Even as advances in artificial intelligence increasingly automate processes, Piech believes coding is still as relevant as ever because learners will gain a thinking framework that is also applicable to AI. That programming foundation could help one better use generative AI tools like ChatGPT, understand its ethics, or even program the next big AI technology, Piech explained.

“Curiosity has brought a lot of people to their first step into coding,” Piech said. “Once you take a couple steps, you realize there’s a sheer exhilaration turning something that’s just in your mind into something that you can visualize and share with your loved ones.”

Code in Place’s next guided session is April 22 through May 31. The course is free. Applications for volunteer section leaders are closed. Learner applications are due by Friday, April 12. The Code in Place course is made possible, in part, by the generous support of Carina Initiatives.

Related : Chris Piech , assistant professor of computer science

Related : Mehran Sahami , professor of computer science

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John Hennessy to receive the National Science Board Vannevar Bush Award

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Stanford Engineering announces annual staff award winners

Symposium inaugurates Center for Computational Market Design

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K-12 Students and Teachers

Stanford Live's K-12 engagement programs increase access to the arts and offer a range of opportunities for participation, learning, and discovery. We are dedicated to nurturing and supporting the next generation of artists and arts lovers. Each season we offer approximately 5 student matinees, 5 teacher workshops, and over 100 hours of in-school programming through our artist-in-schools programs.

Performances

Our student matinee series introduces students to a broad range of art forms and world cultures, with programs suitable for all grades. They let students experience the magic of live performance, expand school curriculum, support culturally relevant learning, and give teachers tools to bring the arts into classrooms. Student matinees for the 2024 –25 season will be announced in late April 2024.

Tickets are $8 each, with scholarship assistance available. Click here to download our order form. If you have questions, please contact Ben Frandzel at [email protected] .

To apply for financial aid by mail, please fill out the order form and attach a letter explaining the need on school letterhead signed by your principal. On the order form, indicate the number of scholarships requested and include payment for your paid attendance (total attendance less scholarships requested). We encourage you to include demographic information about your school. This information is important for internal reporting purposes, but will in no way affect the determination of scholarship awards.

To apply for financial aid online, please submit a letter via email to Ben Frandzel at [email protected] .

Teacher Workshops

We support educators’ professional development with workshops presented by leading teaching artists, promoting arts integration and culturally responsive pedagogy.

In-School Programs

Since 2016 we have a longstanding residency in the Ravenswood City School District with teaching artists Quinteto Latino. We provide individualized coaching and professional development for the music teachers, as well as guest- and co-teaching classes and leading creative projects for students. 

Acknowledgments

Stanford Live’s K-12 programs are generously supported by Gretchen and Mark Schar, the Koret Foundation, donors to the Stanford Live K-12 Programs Fund, the Stanford Office of Community Engagement, and Friends of Music at Stanford. This activity is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov

Stanford PD Community Blog

Stanford grupo de parkinson en español.

April 15, 2024 By Parkinson's Community Help

El Centro de Referencia e Información APDA de Stanford y el Centro de Alcance Comunitario de Parkinson de Stanford ofrecen un grupo de apoyo virtual especial en español para personas con Parkinson y sus familias.

La facilitadora es Carla Abdelnour, MD, PhD, Stanford Neurology. Los primeros 15 minutos de cada reunión incluirán al Dr. Abdelnour compartiendo información sobre un síntoma de EP.

Este folleto tiene todos los detalles. Únase al Dr. Abdelnour y comparta el folleto con cualquier persona que pueda beneficiarse de un grupo de apoyo para el Parkinson.

Featured Posts

Your top three parkinson’s questions answered by the apda.

The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) recently shared the top three questions they are … [Read More...]

National Day of Action – Thursday, September 22, 2022

From the American Parkinson Disease Association, Northwest Chapter (APDA NW), Tuesday, September … [Read More...]

APDA hosting a FREE Virtual Parkinson’s Education Conference Feb. 15-16, 2023

The two-day APDA Virtual Parkinson’s Conference: Educate, Empower, Engage will be geared towards … [Read More...]

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Hey there, human — the robots need you! Vote for IEEE’s Robots Guide in the Webby Awards.

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Ieee spectrum, follow ieee spectrum, support ieee spectrum, enjoy more free content and benefits by creating an account, saving articles to read later requires an ieee spectrum account, the institute content is only available for members, downloading full pdf issues is exclusive for ieee members, downloading this e-book is exclusive for ieee members, access to spectrum 's digital edition is exclusive for ieee members, following topics is a feature exclusive for ieee members, adding your response to an article requires an ieee spectrum account, create an account to access more content and features on ieee spectrum , including the ability to save articles to read later, download spectrum collections, and participate in conversations with readers and editors. for more exclusive content and features, consider joining ieee ., join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to all of spectrum’s articles, archives, pdf downloads, and other benefits. learn more →, join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of ieee spectrum’s articles, archives, pdf downloads, and other benefits. learn more →, access thousands of articles — completely free, create an account and get exclusive content and features: save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders — all free for full access and benefits, join ieee as a paying member., 15 graphs that explain the state of ai in 2024, the ai index tracks the generative ai boom, model costs, and responsible ai use.

Each year, the AI Index lands on virtual desks with a louder virtual thud—this year, its 393 pages are a testament to the fact that AI is coming off a really big year in 2023. For the past three years, IEEE Spectrum has read the whole damn thing and pulled out a selection of charts that sum up the current state of AI (see our coverage from 2021 , 2022 , and 2023 ).

This year’s report , published by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) , has an expanded chapter on responsible AI and new chapters on AI in science and medicine, as well as its usual roundups of R&D, technical performance, the economy, education, policy and governance, diversity, and public opinion. This year is also the first time that Spectrum has figured into the report, with a citation of an article published here about generative AI’s visual plagiarism problem .

1. Generative AI investment skyrockets

While corporate investment was down overall last year, investment in generative AI went through the roof. Nestor Maslej , editor-in-chief of this year’s report, tells Spectrum that the boom is indicative of a broader trend in 2023, as the world grappled with the new capabilities and risks of generative AI systems like ChatGPT and the image-generating DALL-E 2 . “The story in the last year has been about people responding [to generative AI],” says Maslej, “whether it’s in policy, whether it’s in public opinion, or whether it’s in industry with a lot more investment.” Another chart in the report shows that most of that private investment in generative AI is happening in the United States.

2. Google is dominating the foundation model race

Foundation models are big multipurpose models—for example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 are the foundation model that enable ChatGPT users to write code or Shakespearean sonnets. Since training these models typically requires vast resources, Industry now makes most of them, with academia only putting out a few. Companies release foundation models both to push the state-of-the-art forward and to give developers a foundation on which to build products and services. Google released the most in 2023.

3. Closed models outperform open ones

One of the hot debates in AI right now is whether foundation models should be open or closed, with some arguing passionately that open models are dangerous and others maintaining that open models drive innovation . The AI Index doesn’t wade into that debate, but instead looks at trends such as how many open and closed models have been released (another chart, not included here, shows that of the 149 foundation models released in 2023, 98 were open, 23 gave partial access through an API, and 28 were closed).

The chart above reveals another aspect: Closed models outperform open ones on a host of commonly used benchmarks. Maslej says the debate about open versus closed “usually centers around risk concerns, but there’s less discussion about whether there are meaningful performance trade-offs.”

4. Foundation models have gotten super expensive

Here’s why industry is dominating the foundation model scene: Training a big one takes very deep pockets. But exactly how deep? AI companies rarely reveal the expenses involved in training their models, but the AI Index went beyond the typical speculation by collaborating with the AI research organization Epoch AI . To come up with their cost estimates, the report explains, the Epoch team “analyzed training duration, as well as the type, quantity, and utilization rate of the training hardware” using information gleaned from publications, press releases, and technical reports.

It’s interesting to note that Google’s 2017 transformer model , which introduced the architecture that underpins almost all of today’s large language models, was trained for only US $930.

5. And they have a hefty carbon footprint

The AI Index team also estimated the carbon footprint of certain large language models. The report notes that the variance between models is due to factors including model size, data center energy efficiency, and the carbon intensity of energy grids. Another chart in the report (not included here) shows a first guess at emissions related to inference—when a model is doing the work it was trained for—and calls for more disclosures on this topic. As the report notes: “While the per-query emissions of inference may be relatively low, the total impact can surpass that of training when models are queried thousands, if not millions, of times daily.”

6. The United States leads in foundation models

While Maslej says the report isn’t trying to “declare a winner to this race,” he does note that the United States is leading in several categories, including number of foundation models released (above) and number of AI systems deemed significant technical advances. However, he notes that China leads in other categories including AI patents granted and installation of industrial robots.

7. Industry calls new PhDs

This one is hardly a surprise, given the previously discussed data about industry getting lots of investment for generative AI and releasing lots of exciting models. In 2022 (the most recent year for which the Index has data), 70 precent of new AI PhDs in North America took jobs in industry. It’s a continuation of a trend that’s been playing out over the last few years.

8. Some progress on diversity

For years, there’s been little progress on making AI less white and less male. But this year’s report offers a few hopeful signs. For example, the number of non-white and female students taking the AP computer science exam is on the rise. The graph above shows the trends for ethnicity, while another graph, not included here, shows that 30 percent of the students taking the exam are now girls.

Another graph in the report shows that at the undergraduate level, there’s also a positive trend in increasing ethnic diversity among North American students earning bachelor degrees in computer science, although the number of women earning CS bachelor degrees has barely budged over the last five years. Says Maslej, “it’s important to know that there’s still a lot of work to be done here.”

9. Chatter in earnings calls

Businesses are awake to the possibilities of AI. The Index got data about Fortune 500 companies’ earnings calls from Quid , a market intelligence firm that used natural language processing tools to scan for all mentions of “artificial intelligence,” “AI,” “machine learning,” “ML,” and “deep learning.” Nearly 80 percent of the companies included discussion of AI in their calls. “I think there’s a fear in business leaders that if they don’t use this technology, they’re going to miss out,” Maslej says.

And while some of that chatter is likely just CEOs bandying about buzzwords, another graph in the report shows that 55 percent of companies included in a McKinsey survey have implemented AI in at least one business unit.

10. Costs go down, revenues go up

And here’s why AI isn’t just a corporate buzzword: The same McKinsey survey showed that the integration of AI has caused companies’ costs to go down and their revenues go up. Overall, 42 percent of respondents said they’d seen reduced costs, and 59 percent claimed increased revenue.

Other charts in the report suggest that this impact on the bottom line reflects efficiency gains and better worker productivity. In 2023, a number of studies in different fields showed that AI enabled workers to complete tasks more quickly and produce better quality work. One study looked at coders using Copilot , while others looked at consultants, call center agents, and law students. “These studies also show that although every worker benefits, AI helps lower-skilled workers more than it does high-skilled workers,” says Maslej.

11. Corporations do perceive risks

This year, the AI Index team ran a global survey of 1,000 corporations with revenues of at least $500 million to understand how businesses are thinking about responsible AI. The results showed that privacy and data governance is perceived as the greatest risk across the globe, while fairness (often discussed in terms of algorithmic bias ) still hasn’t registered with most companies. Another chart in the report shows that companies are taking action on their perceived risks: The majority of organizations across regions have implemented at least one responsible AI measure in response to relevant risks.

12. AI can’t beat humans at everything... yet

In recent years, AI systems have outperformed humans on a range of tasks, including reading comprehension and visual reasoning, and Maslej notes that the pace of AI performance improvement has also picked up. “A decade ago, with a benchmark like ImageNet, you could rely on that to challenge AI researchers for for five or six years,” he says. “Now, a new benchmark is introduced for competition-level mathematics and the AI starts at 30 percent, and then in a year it gets to 90 percent.” While there are still complex cognitive tasks where humans outperform AI systems, let’s check in next year to see how that’s going.

13. Developing norms of AI responsibility

When an AI company is preparing to release a big model, it’s standard practice to test it against popular benchmarks in the field, thus giving the AI community a sense of how models stack up against each other in terms of technical performance. However, it has been less common to test models against responsible AI benchmarks that assess such things as toxic language output ( RealToxicityPrompts and ToxiGen ), harmful bias in responses ( BOLD and BBQ ), and a model’s degree of truthfulness ( TruthfulQA ). That’s starting to change, as there’s a growing sense that checking one’s model against theses benchmarks is, well, the responsible thing to do. However, another chart in the report shows that consistency is lacking: Developers are testing their models against different benchmarks, making comparisons harder.

14. Laws both boost and constrain AI

Between 2016 and 2023, the AI Index found that 33 countries had passed at least one law related to AI, with most of the action occurring in the United States and Europe; in total, 148 AI-related bills have been passed in that timeframe. The Index researchers also classified bills as either expansive laws that aim to enhance a country’s AI capabilities or restrictive laws that place limits on AI applications and usage. While many bills continue to boost AI, the researchers found a global trend toward restrictive legislation .

15. AI makes people nervous

The Index’s public opinion data comes from a global survey on attitudes toward AI , with responses from 22,816 adults (ages 16 to 74) in 31 countries. More than half of respondents said that AI makes them nervous, up from 39 percent the year before. And two-thirds of people now expect AI to profoundly change their daily lives in the next few years.

Maslej notes that other charts in the index show significant differences in opinion among different demographics, with young people being more inclined toward an optimistic view of how AI will change their lives. Interestingly, “a lot of this kind of AI pessimism comes from Western, well-developed nations,” he says, while respondents in places like Indonesia and Thailand said they expect AI’s benefits to outweigh its harms.

• 10 Graphs That Sum Up the State of AI in 2023 ›
• 12 Graphs That Explain the State of AI in 2022 ›
• AI Index Report 2024 – Artificial Intelligence Index ›
• AI Index Report | Stanford HAI ›

Eliza Strickland is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum , where she covers AI, biomedical engineering, and other topics. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

The Commercial Status of AI is explained very well by 15 Charts in this Article. However we miss many things

Like Technology and R&D Projects going on regarding development of AI which need to be explained. Of Course Technological matters

barred to be discussed in free publication and remains confidential by Software companies and marketing agencies because of financial

aspects. Other things like Quality, safety and comparative studies of AI technology available in the market need Qualitative studies. We need graphical studies of AI status developed by Microsoft, Google, IBM for brevity. Both

Qualitative & Quantitative studies is better

The Legacy of the Datapoint 2200 Microcomputer

Announcing a benchmark to improve ai safety, prepping for post-quantum cryptography, related stories, deep learning picks apart dna data-copying puzzles, machine learning turns up covid surprise, watch syntiant’s 1-milliwatt chip play ​doom​.

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The marriage bonus, 'white silence is complicity': npr’s new ceo sounded more like an activist than a journalist in 2020 tweets, 'iran wasn't attacking israel': berkeley student group rallies behind iran after missile attack, stanford investigates allegations of research misconduct against ‘equitable math’ advocate, professor jo boaler misrepresented research in her work, complaint alleges.

Stanford University has opened an investigation into allegations that California’s prominent "math equity" advocate, math education professor Jo Boaler, misused research to support contentious claims that underpin her work, according to an email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon .

"We are very aware of the current controversy surrounding Professor Boaler’s work," Stanford’s vice president of alumni affairs wrote to a university alum who had reached out to officials with concerns about the allegations. "At the same time, we are firm believers in academic freedom at Stanford and grant our faculty wide latitude in pursuing their research and scholarship. We are consequently reviewing these anonymous allegations with that in mind."

Boaler herself spoke up about the complaint on Monday, weeks after it was filed in March. In a statement branded with the Stanford logo, Boaler said the allegations are "the same pattern of attack used against Black DEI faculty at Harvard." She referred to the Free Beacon, which first reported on the complaint, as a "far-right publication" and criticized a media report from the Chronicle of Higher Education as a "shoddy and indolent journalistic approach."

Stanford, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment, told  the Stanford Daily  that it is not a formal probe.

"Stanford takes such allegations seriously and considers them accordingly. The first step is to determine if the matter is one properly resolved in scholarly debate rather than through a formal university process," Stanford spokeswoman Luisa Rapport said.

Boaler, who teaches at the university’s graduate school of education, allegedly misrepresented citations to support some of her contentious claims, including that timed tests cause math anxiety and that students perform better if they aren’t graded. In her statement, she said the allegations "demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of educational research approaches, or a simple difference in interpretation of results," adding that she and "many others who have read their accusations" do not believe they "show any evidence of ‘academic misconduct.’"

Boaler leads a research center at Stanford called Youcubed , which produces teacher trainings, school curricula, summer camps, and more based on her work to promote "equitable" approaches to teaching math. Youcubed online courses for teachers can start as high as $1,800 per person, and upcoming events include a May 16 webinar featuring Boaler and Yolande Beckles—a woman who has several court judgments against her for financial fraud from the U.K. and who has rebranded herself as an "equity" education advocate in California after scamming £12,000 from poor British children.

Boaler has been an "equity" advocate for years and was the most prominent author of the recently adopted, "social justice"-focused California math framework , which seeks to guide the math instruction for the state’s nearly six million public school students. The framework is viewed by critics as undercutting math teaching standards in the name of equity.

Through her Youcubed newsletter, Boaler in 2021 touted the framework’s "social justice" approach, including the guidance—which was removed before final approval—that advanced middle schoolers shouldn’t be offered more challenging courses. She celebrated these ideas as potentially a "new mathematics future for students in California (and possibly beyond)."

She was also cited as a leading influence in San Francisco public schools’ decision to quit teaching 8th grade algebra—a policy that led to disastrous results and is in the process of being reversed. Boaler has distanced herself from the policy, saying she has always supported teaching 8th grade algebra, in a contradiction of past statements.

In 2015, after rolling out the algebra ban, the school district credited her and her Stanford research for "helping us stay strong." And in 2019, Boaler was quoted by the George Lucas Educational Foundation as a "Stanford University mathematics education professor and researcher who has worked with the district."

"San Francisco had a strong team of math coaches and leaders who knew what research was telling them and decided to take it on," Boaler said.

Update April 12, 10:00 a.m. : This post has been updated with comment from Stanford.

Published under: Education , Equity , K-12 , Stanford University