Foundations
What AI is, where it came from, how it learns, and what it can't do.
7 modules · 42 lessons · about 7 hours
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.
Module 26 lessonsA 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.
Module 36 lessonsHow machines learn
Data, training and prediction; supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, explained with everyday examples and no maths.
Module 46 lessonsTypes 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.
Module 56 lessonsMeet 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.
Module 66 lessonsYour first conversations with AI
Getting started with an AI assistant safely: what to ask, how to follow up, and how to tell a good answer from a confident one.
Module 76 lessonsLimitations and staying safe
Hallucination, bias, knowledge cutoffs, privacy, deepfakes and AI-powered scams: what AI gets wrong, and how to protect yourself.
