learn about ai
Understand it before you build with it.
Twelve short reads, about 86 minutes all together, written for someone who has never built anything with AI. What it is, how it got here, who makes it, how to ask it for things, who the companies are and where the money goes, and what an agent can do for you this week. No jargon, no hype, and we say so when nobody knows the answer.
• Pick the track that sounds like you. Each lesson ends with the one thing to do next.
track 1
Brand new to this
What AI actually is, how it got here, and the words people keep using.
Start here if you have used a chatbot once or twice, or never.
01 · 6 min read
What AI actually is
The kind of AI everyone is talking about is a very good guesser of the next word. That one idea explains most of what it can and cannot do.
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02 · 8 min read
How we got here
Seventy years from a summer workshop to a chatbot with hundreds of millions of users, in one sitting.
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03 · 7 min read
Words you will hear
Thirty words, each explained in a sentence or two, so nobody at the table can lose you.
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track 2
Use it well
Which model, which company, and how to ask so you get what you meant.
For people who already chat with an AI and want more out of it.
01 · 6 min read
What a model is, and why there are so many
Big and small, fast and careful, open and closed. What the names on the menu mean and how to pick.
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02 · 7 min read
How to talk to AI so it does what you mean
Six habits that separate people who find AI useless from people who find it indispensable. None of them are technical.
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track 3
The players
Who makes what, who owns whom, where the money goes, and why none of it should worry you.
For anyone who reads the headlines and wants them to make sense.
01 · 7 min read
The map, who does what
The AI world is five layers stacked on top of each other, and most companies you hear about live on one of them. Once you can see the stack, every headline makes sense.
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02 · 8 min read
The companies and their models
Who makes what, what each is known for, and which one is on your phone. Written for September 2026, and dated on purpose, because this changes monthly.
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03 · 8 min read
The giants behind the scenes
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta and Nvidia. Most of them do not make the chatbot you use, and all of them shape it.
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04 · 8 min read
Everyone else worth knowing
Twenty names you will meet in headlines and app stores, each in two sentences, sorted by what they are for.
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05 · 7 min read
How the money flows
Why the free tier exists, why prices keep falling, what the enormous numbers in the news mean, and the one habit that protects you from all of it.
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track 4
Ready for agents
What an agent is, why now, and how to stay safe while it works for you.
Read these two before you build your first one.
01 · 7 min read
What an agent is, and why now
A chatbot answers. An agent does. What changed in the last two years, what an agent is made of, and what it can do for you this week.
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02 · 7 min read
Staying safe and sensible
The handful of habits that keep a beginner out of trouble. Privacy, money, mistakes, and the one trick that fools agents.
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Then do one real thing with it.
Reading about AI is like reading about swimming. Say who you are and we hand you one thing to do today, in about ten minutes, with the prompt written for you.