Stanford University

PROMPT: The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. (250 words) During the first lockdown, I learnt the mathematical foundations of AI, inspired by how my middle-school friend created new Shakespearean plays via AI. My nagging curiosity propelled me to finish Professor Andrew Ng’s 5-month Stanford course in 3 weeks. As AI buzzwords—gradient descent, hyperparameter optimization—became familiar, I became gripped by the realization that AI was trial-and-error at…