How I've Learned Generative AI

Life update since my last post… I got a new job!

In June of this year, I started a new role as a Solutions Architect at Cohere. In this role I help customers design AI applications that use Cohere’s Large Language Models.

Moving from Data Integration to Machine Learning and Generative AI has been a technical change for me. While there’s been dozens of resources that helped me get up to speed on GenAI/ML, today's post focuses on the top two I’d recommend to anyone looking to understand how this stuff actually works. 

Large Language Model University (LLMu) 

This is the best resource I’ve encountered teaching Generative AI for newbies.

Completing this will get you from 0 to intermediate level knowledge on all things GenAI and Natural Language Processing. AI is a difficult topic to learn because we are dealing with text inputs/outputs. When data is in numerical/tabular format, it’s easier to conceptualize and to work with. Deterministic software has guaranteed outputs.  But when you’re working with random generation (stochastic software), it can be difficult to conceptualize and implement in a trustworthy manner. The best part about LLMu is that it’s created for beginners, and is explained at an easy to understand learning level. If you want to understand how computers work with text, RAG, Agentic AI, and more - LLMu is your one stop shop. 

Full disclosure that this was created by my current company, Cohere, but I promise I am recommending this based on merit. This whole course will take you roughly 20 hours.

Check it out at: https://cohere.com/llmu

Google’s Machine Learning Crash Course

This course is about Machine Learning in general. Knowing the basics of machine learning are table stakes for any AI practitioner. What is a machine learning model? How does model training work? why? How do we select the data to train on? This course does a great job of getting into these technical concepts. You’ll finish this course understanding those concepts and how exactly different types of models can predict future outcomes/trends from the training process.

Check it out, this is a little more in depth and will take roughly 30 hours to complete- https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/crash-course

A final note about my blog..

As a closing note, I plan to refresh my blog's content to better align with my day to day duties and my ongoing learning journey in the field of Generative AI. My blogging will focus on a variety of real-world AI applications, highlight the trends and customer demands I encounter, and provide practical guides on implementing these cutting-edge solutions.

This space is moving insanely fast and I look forward to sharing what I learn along the way.

-Matt