And while in college were probably self-taught too. As an ex-academic I believe formal education is about credentialing. Being able to tell someone that you've acquired a degree of mastery we believe is appropriate to some level. And that's fine, but I fundamentally believe that all learning is really self-taught.

Someone lecturing to you is just a different medium from reading it in a book or online video. In all these cases someone who knows the topic better than yourself has manifest some information in some way for you to learn. (It's not like anyone using the term "self-taught" actually means they learned how to do AI from first principles. They learned it by reading a book written by Russell & Norvig.)

And with that said, let me say that CS isn't programming. No more than a degree in biology is the same as being a doctor. In fact the profession of doctor is so specialized they created a special degree just for it, with residencies in specialties -- and you don't need a bio undergrad degree to get into med school.

And as a general rule, if you're passionate about an intellectual pursuit you'll probably be pretty good in it (not asserting how the causality works). Those that learn via books outside of a formal setting are self-selected as it requires a special type of discipline. Although as more people race to become founders and teach themselves, this pool probably gets diluted.