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AI|Course

Stage 1 · Understand · Beginner

AI Foundations for IT Professionals

Start here if you work in IT and have no AI background. Learn what AI actually is, how machines learn, how neural networks and language models work, where they fail, and how to read the landscape, with no coding required.

7 lessons · 12 hr · Free

You will learn to

  • ▸Explain AI, machine learning, deep learning and generative AI to a colleague
  • ▸Describe the learning loop and why data quality and testing matter
  • ▸Understand neural networks and language models well enough to reason about their behaviour
  • ▸Judge which tasks suit AI using a practical checklist, and spot hallucination, bias and security risks
  • ▸Read the AI landscape: hosted versus open models, the stack, and the jargon

Before you start

  • ·Comfortable with everyday IT concepts such as APIs, servers and files
  • ·No programming or maths beyond school level is needed
  • ·Optional: a free account with any chat assistant to try the examples

Syllabus

  1. 01What AI is, and is notThe map of terms and the shift from rules to learning.1 hr
  2. 02How machines learnData, models, training, overfitting and the metrics that matter.1 hr 30 min
  3. 03Neural networks in plain termsNeurons, layers, parameters and how a network learns.1 hr 30 min
  4. 04How language models workTokens, embeddings, attention, context and training stages.2 hr
  5. 05Strengths, limits and risksHallucination, bias, privacy, security and a suitability checklist.1 hr 30 min
  6. 06The AI landscape for IT professionalsHosted versus open models, the stack, jargon and where you fit.1 hr 30 min
  7. 07Capstone: your AI literacy briefWrite a brief that helps your team make better AI decisions.3 hr