As of 2024 the topic of artificial intelligence as blown up and become widely popular. While it is purported as a revolutionary set of technologies that will change the the future of humanity, to a more critical eye such arguments come off as marketing for businesses. Hype aside, the technologies themselves look quite intriguing if nothing else for their novelty. There some also some examples of artificial intelligence that are just too cool to ignore. Here’s an example:

This is an amazing video isn't it?

It goes without saying that the above video is an amazing culmination of Yosh’s work. It’s also highly inspiration. These results were apparently obtained by just running some code through a personal computer for a long time. Based on the hype about AI, it gives the impression that one needs very potent computers to teach the AI’s to do anything useful. But if a simple PC can generate what are demonstrably good results, then it’s very reassuring that the layman can learn about these technologies on a budget.

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Thankfully, the area of AI has existed for a long time so there is a vast amount of open-source software to learn about it. A great example of this accesibility are free courses like FreeCodeCamps’s Machine Learning with Python Certificate. I admit, I was amazed when I saw this when I looking for tutorials on web development. It was just there and found difficult to not go through the course out of sheer curiosity.

Once you dive into this world you soon discover even more free resources to learn about AI. There’s even free textbooks about the stuff. Here’s some that caught the attention of my untrained eye:

  • Learn Pytorch Zero to Mastery Learn PyTorch for Deep Learning

  • Practical Deep Learning A free course designed for people with some coding experience, who want to learn how to apply deep learning and machine learning to practical problems.

If we keep going there’s a ocean of paid courses on AI available at websites like Coursera. Now that impressive!

Still, keeping with the spirit of this blog that is hosted on github pages and written on old Thinkpad running Xubuntu, I think its best to stick with the non-paid courses (for now). There’s no need to pay for education on topics one may-or-may-not end up liking and just don’t mesh with intellectually. Anyone that has churned-out a college degree can attest to this.