Learning path · Foundational to intermediate

AI Foundations

A guided path through how models work, how they become assistants, how progress is measured, and how governance is evolving.

Builders and leaders who want a stronger mental model of modern AI.

4 courses 2 hr 19 min total Progress saved on this device
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What you’ll work on

  • Explain the core model and post-training mental models
  • Reason about progress using evidence rather than hype
  • Join informed conversations about AI governance

Your course order

  1. 01

    The Mechanism — What a Transformer Actually Computes

    Part 1 of a five-part series on how LLMs work. The forward pass step by step: attention, the residual stream, and where the parameters live.
    43 min read · Updated Oct 17, 2026 9 modules 0 of 9 modules complete
  2. 02

    Post-Training — How a Document Completer Becomes an Assistant

    Part 3. SFT, RLHF and DPO, with DPO's closed form derived step by step, and what that shortcut costs.
    36 min read · Aug 28, 2026 9 modules 0 of 9 modules complete
  3. 03

    Price and Pace — Measuring AI Progress from the Outside and the Inside

    Epoch AI's estimate of how fast the cost of AI is falling, next to Anthropic's proposal for measuring progress from inside a lab.
    20 min read · Sep 26, 2026 7 modules 0 of 7 modules complete
  4. 04

    AI Governance — Hassabis's FINRA for AI

    Demis Hassabis's July 2026 call for a self-regulatory body for AI, set against Amodei's and Altman's proposals, with the history behind the debate.
    40 min read · Jul 19, 2026 14 modules 0 of 14 modules complete
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