How AI Works
A plain-language look inside the AI tools you use: how a model writes one token at a time, how it was trained, what it can see when it answers, and how it uses tools. Every recorded example in the course is a real model reply, labeled with the model and the date, including the ones that went wrong.
- Beginner
- 4 modules
- 16 lessons
- 1 hr 42 min
Read the transcript
Welcome to How AI Works. It's for anyone who uses AI at work. You don't need a technical background.
It explains what's going on when a model answers you. It comes in four parts.
How it writes: one token at a time, picked from its odds. That's why the same request can come back different.
How it learned: what training gives it, why it sometimes makes things up, and why it tends to agree with you.
What it can see: only what the app sends it. That might be the chat so far, your documents, or an image.
And how it acts: with tools, it can look things up and take steps. And text it reads can try to give it orders.
Every recorded example in the course is a real model reply, labeled with the model and the date. Some are surprising. Asked how many r's are in strawberry, GPT-4.1 mini said two, all three times.
Each lesson goes one step at a time. You read a short part, see or try one thing, then move on. Each part ends with a short check.
First up: how a reply gets written.
About this course
Each lesson goes one step at a time, with short reads and something to try. Lesson times are estimates, and each module ends with a short check that isn't counted in them.
What you'll learn
- How it writes How a model writes a reply one token at a time, why tokens shape your bill, and why the same request can come back different.
- How it learned How training turns text into an assistant, why its knowledge stops at a cutoff, why it guesses and agrees, and what reasoning models change.
- What it can see What the app sends with every reply, how search by meaning finds your documents, and how images and PDFs become tokens too.
- How it acts How a model uses tools and works as an agent, and how text it reads can try to give it orders.
Lessons 16 lessons · 1 hr 42 min
The first module is free. The rest come with Pro.