Module 5 · Level I · Foundations

Meet the models

Language, image, speech and video models; open and closed; large and small; reasoning models: the kinds of model behind the tools, and who makes them.

6 lessons · about 1 hour

The module in 44 secondsCaptions on · sound optional

What’s inside

  1. 01
    Language models: the engines behind the chatbots

    What a large language model is, what it's good and bad at, and which model family sits behind each of the main AI assistants. · 10 min

  2. 02
    Models that make images, sound, video and music

    Diffusion models for pictures, speech models for listening and talking, and the newer video and music models, with the tools that use each. · 11 min

  3. 03
    Multimodal models and reasoning models

    Models that handle text, images and sound together, and models that work through a problem before answering: what each adds and costs. · 10 min

  4. 04
    Open and closed models

    Some models can be downloaded and run by anyone; others are only available through their maker. Each has fair advantages and real drawbacks. · 11 min

  5. 05
    Large and small models

    Bigger models know more and cost more; smaller ones are faster, cheaper and can run on your own phone. How to think about the trade-off. · 9 min

  6. 06
    Makers, products and model names

    Who makes the models, why the app you use isn't the same thing as the model inside it, and how to read a model name without being fooled. · 11 min

Where this sits on your path depends on your assessment. Some people skip this module outright; others start here. The free placement assessment decides, and the first lesson of every module is free to read. Find your level →

Also at Level I

1What AI actually is
AI, machine learning, deep learning and generative AI, untangled: what each term means, what it doesn't, and why the hype and the fear both miss.2A short history of AI
From Turing and the 1956 Dartmouth workshop through two AI winters, deep learning and the transformer to ChatGPT and agents: how we got here, and what it predicts.3How machines learn
Data, training and prediction; supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, explained with everyday examples and no maths.4Types and styles of AI
Narrow and general, predictive and generative, rules and learning: the different styles of AI and where you already meet each one.