Level 1Starting out
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What is AI? A plain-English starter
A jargon-free introduction to modern AI: how chatbots work, what they are good and bad at, and how to use them safely from day one.
Free AI course downloads
Explore courses
107 free courses to study online, with PDF workbooks to keep. Choose by subject, level, goal or industry. Workbooks by Mickarle Wagstaff-Irons - Micky Irons, published by Mickai LTD. No account needed.
Your path
Level 1
Starting out
Everyone starts here, and it is a great place to start.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Your first prompts: how to ask AI for what you actually want
Learn to ask AI for what you actually want: the six parts of a good prompt, how to improve a reply, and how to build a personal prompt library. Free tools only.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
The free AI toolkit: how to choose tools and stay safe
How free AI tools work, how to choose and test them, how to check their current terms and privacy, how to spot fake apps and scams, and how to build your own starter stack.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Make YouTube videos with AI: a beginner's workflow
A beginner's end-to-end workflow for making YouTube videos with AI: script, voiceover, visuals, captions, upload, YouTube's disclosure rules, analytics and a 30-day plan.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Stay safe with AI: scams, fake media and your privacy
Spot AI-assisted scams and fake media, keep your privacy when using chatbots, know your basic UK data rights and where to report problems, with a simple routine to follow.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Use AI to study, research and write without losing your own thinking
Use an AI assistant as a study partner, not an answer machine: quiz yourself, verify every claim and citation, write in your own voice, and say how you used it.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Using AI to find a job: your CV, cover letter and interview prep
A free workbook on using AI honestly in a job search: tightening a CV, drafting then personalising a cover letter, and rehearsing interview answers, without inventing experience.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Using AI for everyday admin: letters, emails and forms
A practical, free workbook for writing a clear email or letter that matters, and filling in a form correctly. Covers tone, structure and the checks you still have to do yourself.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Using AI as an accessibility tool: reading, writing and seeing
AI accessibility features already on your device: screen readers, dictation, live captions and image description. What each does well, and where it goes wrong.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Keep your job: use AI to do it better
A worked method to keep your job secure: map your real weekly tasks, sort AI-assistable work from judgement-only work, adopt two or three workflows, and measure the time you save.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
A second income with AI: what actually works
Four real ways to earn a second income with AI, ranked by realistic time-to-first-income, each with a worked exercise. Side-hustle income is modest; consistency beats the tool.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Deepfakes and misinformation: how to tell what is real
A practical verification checklist and hands-on spot-the-fake exercise: honest visual and audio tells, reverse image search, and checking whether others are reporting it.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Which AI model should I use right now? A living, refreshed comparison
A refreshed, six-factor framework for choosing an AI model: reasoning, effort, context length, multimodal support, latency and data handling, tested on your own work.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Why does AI make things up? Hallucinations explained
A plain-English guide to why AI chatbots invent facts in a completely confident tone, a practical checklist for spotting one, and what genuinely helps.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Free AI tools vs paid: what you actually need to pay for
A decision framework for the genuine free-vs-paid AI question: what is free forever, what has a free tier with real limits, and how to work out what is actually worth paying for.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Writing better emails, reports and documents with AI
A practical method for better emails and short reports with AI: give real context, tighten tone and length, catch its generic-writing tells, and proofread before you send.
Level 1Starting out
Recommended for you
Spotting an AI voice-cloning scam
A practical checklist for spotting an AI voice-cloning scam: how little audio a clone needs, what real research reports, and a callback and family code word habit that works.
Level 2
Getting going
You have the basics. Time to get properly good.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI images and video: rights, provenance, labels and quality checks
Use AI images and video responsibly: ownership in the UK, EU and US, tool terms, consent, labelling, Content Credentials, quality checks and simple records.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Build your first app with an AI coding assistant
Build a small bill-splitting web page with any AI coding assistant while staying in control: brief it, build in steps, review the code, test edge cases and keep safe copies.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Deploy AI agents without losing control
Plan least-privilege access, prohibitions, approval thresholds and a checked log for AI agents. Exercises distinguish written plans from implemented controls.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Git for AI builders: commits, branches and pull requests
Learn Git from your first commit to a reviewed pull request, with safe habits for AI-written code: read every diff, commit small, undo safely and keep secrets out.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
HTML: build a meaningful, accessible page
Build a real event page by hand with headings, landmarks, alt text, a data table and a labelled form. Check it with the W3C validator and a keyboard, then review AI-written HTML.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Running open-weight AI models on your own computer, for free
A hands-on guide to running open-weight AI models on your own computer at no subscription cost, using Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp, with honest hardware limits.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Automate a spreadsheet workflow with AI, checks and an audit trail
Clean a messy spreadsheet with AI-suggested formulas without losing control: work on a copy, test every formula, log each change and reconcile the totals.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Build and launch a website with AI
Plan a simple site, have AI write the HTML and CSS, understand and check the code, then publish it free with HTTPS and sound search, accessibility and privacy basics.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Legitimate voice cloning: how it works and the honest, consented uses
How voice cloning actually works, real consented uses in accessibility, dubbing and content creation, and the consent and disclosure line a legitimate use respects.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Prompt like the highest-paid engineer in the room
The structure elite prompt engineers use, taught through five outcomes shown weak prompt to strong: a website, an app, an investor document, an image or video, a difficult email.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
What is sovereign AI, and why it matters to you
A plain-English guide to sovereign AI: who really controls your data and the AI tools you use, why free does not mean you stay in control, and the questions to put to any vendor.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI skills employers actually want, and how to show them
Which AI skills employers genuinely ask for, how to describe your own AI-assisted work on a CV honestly, and a worked strong versus weak answer to a common interview question.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
CSS: responsive layouts, grids and typography
Style a page by hand so it reads well on any screen: box model, cascade, flexbox, grid, fluid type, container queries, dark mode and focus, all measured at three widths.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
What is an AI agent? Agentic AI explained
A plain-English guide to AI agents: how they differ from chatbots and workflows, the parts and the loop, levels of autonomy, the main risks and how to keep a human in control.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AGI explained: what it means and what it does not
A balanced guide to artificial general intelligence: the main definitions, one published levels framework, how to read headlines and timelines, and what matters in practice.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Agents vs chatbots: what's actually different
A plain-English test for telling a chatbot from an AI agent: worked examples of each, a five-question check for any real product, and why the label alone cannot be trusted.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Editing and proofreading your manuscript with AI
The real difference between general grammar checkers, fiction-specific manuscript tools and style-guide consistency checkers, and a workflow that uses each one correctly.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Python: from first script to a useful automation
A complete beginner's route from installing Python to a tested, dry-run-first tool that sorts and reports on a folder, using only what comes with Python.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Writing fiction with AI: what actually helps
The honest, evidence-based answer for fiction writers: where AI genuinely helps (brainstorming, unsticking a scene) and where most working novelists still do not trust it.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Code for as little as possible: VS Code, OpenCode and app builders
Work out what AI-assisted coding really costs and keep it low: how tools charge, a token cost calculator, free editors, OpenCode, local models and paid app builders.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Vibe coding: what it is, what it's good for, and where it breaks
A plain-English guide to vibe coding: what the term means, the real trust gap in AI-written code, when it is a fair trade-off, and how to review code you did not write yourself.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI compliance for a small business, in plain English
Practical AI compliance for a small business: a simple AI-use inventory, risk classification, the EU AI Act's transparency duties, and evidence of human oversight.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI dubbing and localisation for video: what it actually does
How AI dubbing and localisation tools transcribe, translate and resynthesise speech for video, realistic quality expectations, and honest, vendor-checked sourcing.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
Self-publishing on KDP: the AI disclosure rules
What KDP's private AI-generated versus AI-assisted checkbox actually requires, what it does not do, and an honest look at how solid the evidence on enforcement really is.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI voice scam prevention: verify callers and protect payments
Learn how to respond to AI voice scams and fake WhatsApp messages. Practise independent callbacks, safe payment checks, reporting and calm support with six fictional scenarios.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI literacy for school staff
Choose appropriate school AI tasks, verify resources, protect information and test a synthetic teacher-approval gate with clear safeguarding and local policy boundaries.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI literacy and task selection for public servants
Choose suitable public-service AI tasks, protect information, check drafts and build a practical staff induction with human authority and accessible alternatives.
Level 2Getting going
Recommended for you
AI literacy and authority in noncombat defence support
Learn to assess routine administrative AI use, protect information, verify policy drafts and preserve accountable human authority through synthetic staff-learning cases.
Level 3
Building
You are ready to build things that work.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI Investment and Readiness for Leaders
A practical method for leaders investing in AI: define the problem, compare the alternatives, build an honest business case, check readiness, then pilot it inside real gates.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
The loop harness: how AI agents actually run
How an agent harness runs a model in a loop: context, tools, permissions, budgets, stop conditions, logging and testing, with a minimal Python loop and a paper design exercise.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Build your first chatbot
Build a chatbot that behaves: model access, system prompt, history and context limits, guardrails, tone, a test set, logging and cost, on a no-code path or a code path.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Design a repeatable evaluation suite for an AI application
Build an offline AI evaluation harness with test cases, a rubric, regression comparisons, uncertainty checks and a reproducible release record.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Document pipelines: parsing, cleaning and chunking
Build a local document pipeline: clean UTF-8 text, create traceable chunks, test boundaries and measure which evidence survives together.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Tokenisation: train and inspect a small tokenizer
Train a byte-pair encoding tokeniser in plain Python, prove the round trip is lossless, and see how vocabulary size, languages, numbers and spaces change token counts.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Embeddings and vector search from first principles
Build vector search from scratch: turn text into vectors, compare them three ways, search by brute force, score it with recall@k and MRR, and see where it fails.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Host a chatbot on your website, safely
Put a chatbot on your site without leaking keys or running up bills: server function, limits, CORS, privacy, accessibility, fallbacks, monitoring and a launch checklist.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Prompt injection: threat analysis and defensive testing
Learn why prompt injection happens, analyse the harm it can do, and measure which defences work with a harmless offline Python lab that uses fake canary secrets.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
SQL: model and query your first database
A beginner's route through SQL with SQLite: tables, keys and constraints, queries, joins, safe changes, indexes, injection-safe Python and reviewing AI-written SQL.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Tensors, gradients and a first training loop
Learn what training is by doing it on a CPU: tensors and shapes, the loss, gradients by hand and by autograd, the training loop, validation and the classic bugs.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Test-driven development with an AI coding assistant
Use failing examples to guide an AI coding assistant, test boundary cases, catch deliberate defects and hand over a small Python change with clear evidence.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Data analysis with Python: investigate and explain a dataset
Answer a real question from a messy table with pandas: inspect, clean with a log, group, join, chart, measure uncertainty and check AI-written analysis code.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
GPU memory maths for LLMs and SLMs
A repeatable method for checking whether a language model fits your GPU: weights, KV cache, training memory and adapters, plus a small calculator you can run.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
JavaScript: the browser, events and application state
Add behaviour to the event page with plain JavaScript: the DOM, events and delegation, one state object, form validation, focus, status messages and localStorage.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Node.js: build and test a small API
Build a local read-only HTTP API with Node.js: explicit routes, strict query validation, predictable errors and executable tests using built-in modules.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Privacy and data minimisation in AI applications
Keep personal data under control in an AI feature: UK GDPR principles, DPIAs, roles and transfers, and a redaction pipeline you run and test to see what it misses.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
RAG and knowledge bases, step by step
Build a knowledge base a model can answer from: collect, clean, chunk, embed, retrieve, cite and evaluate, with security basics and a hands-on exercise using five short documents.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Tool calling and structured outputs: validate every response
Treat every model reply as untrusted input: write JSON Schema contracts, parse and validate each tool call, retry with feedback, and run tools with limits, dry runs and logs.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Enterprise on-prem AI adoption: a practical guide
A practical buyer's guide for deciding whether to run AI on your own infrastructure: real cost categories, security, data governance, procurement and staffing.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Go: build a concurrent service
Build a standard-library Go HTTP service with bounded workers, ordered results, input limits, cancellation and executable tests.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Open model licences, datasets and deployment obligations
Decide whether you may use, host and redistribute an 'open' model or dataset: licence families, dataset rights, model cards, AI-BOMs, hash checks and a checklist tool.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Setting up a workstation or home server to run AI locally
A practical, honest guide to the hardware behind local AI: choosing a GPU, sizing a PSU, and picking a workstation, laptop or home server, including AI video generation.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
TypeScript: types for safer web applications
Build a typed reading-list boundary with runtime validation, explicit display states, compiler checks and executable tests.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI governance: risk registers, evidence and human accountability
Govern an AI system without being an engineer: map hazards, score and evidence them, name owners and stop rights, make oversight real, and check the register with tested code.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Testing agent loops: budgets, termination and failure recovery
Test an agent loop locally: enforce budgets, replay model decisions, reject late results and verify bounded retries without paying for model calls.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Building an ISMS for an AI-enabled organisation
Build a working ISMS for an AI-enabled organisation: scope, assets, risk, controls, suppliers, incidents and audit, ending in a scoped implementation plan.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI prospect research without invented intelligence
Build a dated account brief with sources and explicit gaps. Check company identity, origin and time; keep unnecessary personal detail absent and outreach permission unresolved.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI product catalogues and truthful descriptions
Check variant facts before enriching a listing. Separate price and stock, retain missing safety and rights evidence, and prepare an accountable held packet.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI-assisted legal intake and conflict screening
Design a bounded legal-intake workflow that preserves uncertainty, protects confidential information and leaves conflict and engagement decisions with qualified people.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Digital evidence: AI provenance and custody records
Preserve source material, trace AI derivatives, challenge integrity claims and prepare a jurisdiction-scoped evidence handover with accountable human decisions.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI-assisted vocational lessons and demonstrations
Design practical lessons with checked references, accessible demonstrations, diagnostic examples and evidence of learning. Build and rehearse a complete adult teaching pack.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI product briefs grounded in user needs and accountability
Turn a sponsor request for AI into a traceable product brief that compares alternatives and preserves unresolved research and human-support gaps.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI market research and defensible claims
Separate fictional research rows, hypotheses and permission gaps. Build a source-linked claim dossier with five holds, bounded wording and a clear human review boundary.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Controlling payment proposals from financial AI agents
Learn to challenge AI voice scams and CEO payment impersonation with independent callbacks, exact beneficiary approvals and controlled retries, using fictional treasury cases.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Digitising telecoms network and service records for controlled AI
Keep old telecom records searchable without turning uncertain identifiers, historical plans or readable files into current network truth or permission.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Law-firm knowledge retrieval across matter boundaries
Separate shared precedent structure from matter records. Check source closure before excerpts, retain retired and unresolved material, and rebuild current review after change.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
AI governance and service accountability for telecoms providers
Prepare a fictional carrier AI governance proposal with accountable owners,separate reviews,source boundaries,stop controls and a held real-service release.
Level 3Building
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Digitising healthcare records for confidential AI retrieval
Reconcile a fictional healthcare archive, trace derivative text to source pages, test access before retrieval and review correction and withdrawal propagation.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Engineering AI purpose, hazards and professional sign-off
Build a fictional engineering AI assurance plan that distinguishes document assistance,current evidence,independent challenge and held physical release.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Defence stores records for noncombat inventory
Reconcile fictional stationery, furniture and cleaning-cloth records without granting AI purchasing or stock adjustment authority.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Law-firm AI governance and supplier assurance
Evaluate AI supplier evidence for a specific use. Keep client content absent, changed purposes visible and real-use decisions held while completing a fictional governance dossier.
Level 3Building
Recommended for you
Accessible AI assistants for citizen enquiries
Design and test fictional citizen-enquiry assistance while preserving current source evidence, usable human alternatives and honest service boundaries.
Level 4
Frontier
You are at the edge. Let's go deeper.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Inference engines explained
How inference engines run a model: memory maths, quantisation, prefill and decode, batching, hardware, and serving a model safely over a local API.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Reasoning models and reasoning engines
What reasoning models are, when extra thinking pays off, how to control it, why a reasoning trace is not proof, and how classical reasoning engines differ.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
How to evaluate a new frontier model the day it lands
A ten-step method for judging a new model: primary sources, licence, architecture, hardware, benchmarks, your own tests, safety, jurisdiction and a decision record.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Hybrid search and reranking for better retrieval
Implement reciprocal rank fusion, validate a reranking boundary and compare query-level retrieval results using a small reproducible Python lab.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Throughput, latency and batching: capacity planning for a model server
Build a tested batch queue simulator, compare burst and sparse arrivals, calculate timing metrics and design a measured model-server experiment.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Transformers: attention explained and implemented
Implement scaled attention, test causal visibility and assemble a small forward-only transformer block using standard-library Python.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Build a tiny language model from scratch
Train an original character-bigram language model with explicit gradients, held-out evaluation, bounded sampling and a reusable JSON checkpoint using standard-library Python.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Evaluate a RAG system with a grounded test set
Build a reproducible RAG evaluation fixture, score retrieval separately from claim support and completeness, and detect regressions hidden by a single headline number.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Model routing, caching and graceful fallbacks
Build a scoped response cache and bounded model router, test expiry and failure boundaries, and compare cost, latency and answer quality on a replayable trace.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Permission-aware retrieval and private knowledge bases
Build and test a small retrieval policy that separates tenants, checks document groups before ranking and refuses missing permission matches.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Rust: ownership, safety and a small command-line tool
Build a standard-library Rust command that reads bounded fictional token counts, validates records and reports totals, with ownership examples and executable tests.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Harness state and agent memory: checkpoints, retention and deletion
Build a small SQLite state store with versioned checkpoints, inspectable facts, expiry, tenant-scoped deletion and tested recovery using standard-library Python.
Level 4Frontier
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Knowledge graphs and structured retrieval
Build a small directed knowledge graph in Python, retrieve bounded evidence paths and test direction, cycles, missing facts and source traceability.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Threat-model an agent and its tool boundary
Map an agent tool boundary and test a local gateway for identity, ownership, exact-action approval, expiry, replay and stale writes using fictional notes.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Orchestrating multiple agents with explicit responsibilities
Build a tested Python coordinator with scripted research, draft and review roles, checked handoffs, dependency failures, bounded retries and a shared call budget.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Agent protocols and context engineering
Design the client/server contract, tool schemas, permission scopes, context budget and human-approval gates a tool-connected agent needs to stay safe, current and accountable.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Running AI Agents Safely in Production
Take an AI agent from demo to production: identity, least-privilege tools, network and data boundaries, budgets, protected logging, release gates and a rehearsed incident response.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Human-in-the-loop vs human-in-time: oversight before impact
Design AI oversight that acts before impact: distinguish presence from approval, bind decisions to actions, test safe stops and build a proportionate evidence dossier.
Level 4Frontier
Recommended for you
Healthcare AI purpose, governance and clinical safety boundaries
Map healthcare AI purpose, indirect harm, privacy and human review. Build a tested appointment-workflow assurance dossier with clearly scoped regulatory references.
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