University Of Texas, EdX Team Up To Offer New Online MS In Artificial Intelligence

The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with edX, a leading online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT a decade ago, to offer a low-cost, online Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI).

The new program is priced very competitively, with a listed tuition of $10,000 plus other fees, and it comes at a time when interest in AI is booming in large part to new applications like the chatbot ChatGPT and the text-to-image model Stable Diffusion. Both technologies need to be much more fully researched and understood, particularly with regard to their potential uses and abuses. And both point to the rapidly accelerating demand for more smart technology, a trend that is attracting billions in new investments.

While the tech industry has seen a significant slowdown of late, illustrated by Google’s and Microsoft’s recent layoffs, AI remains a hiring bright spot according to the World Economic Forum, which listed jobs involving AI and machine learning as among the most in-demand and fastest-growing fields. There is little doubt that the fast pace of AI discoveries and technologies will have enormous impact on several economic sectors, including healthcare, finance, business, communications, and academia.

“No major university has yet launched an online, scalable AI masters degree that can attract large numbers of students by giving them a flexible, accessible, and high-quality education pathway,” said Art Markman, vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. “UT Austin recognizes the need for AI specialists across industries. Building on our successful decade-long partnership with edX, we’re developing a program that can accommodate and support learners from all backgrounds, prepare students for an ever-growing variety of career opportunities, and increase the number of highly trained AI practitioners.”

The new program, to be delivered by UT Austin’s Department of Computer Science and Machine Learning Laboratory, is designed to prepare professionals in areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and robotics. It will consist of the following four required courses and six elective courses:

• Required courses:
• Deep Learning
• Machine Learning
• Reinforcement Learning
• Logic and Reasoning
• Elective courses:
• Optimization
• Online Learning and Optimization
• Automated Logical Reasoning
• Natural Language Processing
• Case Studies in Machine Learning
• Ethics in AI

“We’ve developed the curriculum for the MSAI program with faculty members who are leaders in their fields and committed to student success,” said Eric Busch, director of the Computer and Data Science Online program, in the university’s release. “It’s not just an ‘online degree.’ It’s an immersive and connected community of learners and a credential from UT Austin that opens doors.”

UT Austin has become a leading center for machine learning, and it currently offers online programs in computer science, data science and natural science through edX, with which it has partnered since 2012.

Andrew Hermalyn, president of partnerships at edX, a 2U company, believes that UT’s “new AI degree will become an important on-ramp into the profession for students who have been left out of the field due to the high cost and inaccessibility of traditional programs. As these technologies continue to mature and become integrated into everyday life, programs like those at UT Austin can help educate learners around the globe to develop these technologies in a responsible and ethical way.”

Applications for the MSAI program open in June 2023, with the first classes beginning January 2024, pending approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.