Module 1 · Level I · Foundations

What 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.

6 lessons · about 1 hour

The module in 56 secondsCaptions on · sound optional

What’s inside

  1. 01
    What people mean when they say AI

    A working definition of artificial intelligence you can rely on, and why the word causes so much confusion. · 9 min

  2. 02
    AI, machine learning, deep learning and generative AI

    Four terms that get used as if they mean the same thing, untangled as circles inside circles. · 10 min

  3. 03
    What a chatbot is actually doing

    Chatbots write by predicting text, not by looking up answers, and that one fact explains most of their strengths and weaknesses. · 11 min

  4. 04
    The AI you already use without noticing

    Spam filters, maps, recommendations, face recognition and fraud alerts: AI has been part of your day for years. · 9 min

  5. 05
    What AI is not: hype, fear and reality

    AI isn't conscious, isn't a search engine, isn't magic and isn't one thing, and the truth sits somewhere calmer than the headlines. · 10 min

  6. 06
    How to learn AI, and what the five levels are for

    The habits that make AI stick, and how the five levels fit together so you can choose how far to go. · 8 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

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.5Meet 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.