Want a Free Comprehensive Course of AI Fundamentals?
Well, IBM's
Got Your Ticket
Proving that, indeed, I have no life, I spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then Boxing Day, 2023, working IBM's Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals coursework. Better than watching It's a Wonderful Life, while actually not having one.
The complete IBM course consists of 6 different subjects that cover almost all one would need to learn in order get a good grasp of, er, The Fundamentals Of AI. Each different course is from 50 minutes in length to approximately 2 hours in length. So plan accordingly.
All the these courses are FREE!! First, point your browser to:
https://skillsbuild.org/.
1. Click "Resources for learners." That takes you to:
https://skillsbuild.org/learners
2. Select "Adult Learners."
That takes you to:
https://skillsbuild.org/adult-learners
3. Click "Signup As An
Adult Learner". The dimmed Sign up will turn blue. Click
the blue button.
4. At
https://sb-auth.skillsbuild.org/signup create your account. I
used my Google credentials to login.
Once you arrive at the SkillsBuilder site itself, you will be presented with a broad curriculum of IT Topics. Click Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals to get this course.
The Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals Course
consists of 6 separate classes. The table below describes each
course. There is no fixed sequence of courses, although there is a
recommended sequence. I list the
courses I took in the sequence in which I took them. There are
quizzes and a final exam that you must pass to earn a certificate for
that course. But don't worry. You can repeat any quiz or exam
until you reach a score of at least 80%. Just like college, the
key to success lies in taking good notes.
The source for the course
specifics listed below come from IBM's own course descriptions.
| I was surprised by
how much I had gotten right in
my own early immersion in AI.
In the Introduction class, you will learn the history and language of AI. As you can see from the Certificate this course takes 75 minutes for completion. Intro to AI will teach you the following: Define artificial intelligence Describe three levels of artificial intelligence Describe the history of AI from the past to the possible future Define and describe machine learning Differentiate between structured and unstructured data Describe how machine learning structures data Describe how machine learning structures unstructured data Describe how machine learning uses probabilistic calculation to solve problems Describe three methods by which machine learning analyzes data Describe an ideal relationship between humans and machine learning |
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|
The next class I completed was Machine Learning and Deep
Learning. Here you will learn how an AI learns, and the differences between Machine Learning and Deep Learning. From this course you will obtain a good understanding of how AI is trained. I took this course out of the recommended sequence because it was what interested me most. The highlights are: Distinguish between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning Describe supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning Describe decision trees, linear regression, and logistic regression List and explain advantages of classical machine learning Describe how neural networks are inspired by the human brain Trace the flow of information through a perceptron’s nodes Describe machine learning’s trial-and-error learning process Define and describe deep learning and its ecosystem Identify real-world applications for the deep learning ecosystem Identify future trends for machine learning |
 |
|
The Natural Language Processing course offers a good overview of how computers
and AI process human language into interactive communication with a computer. Here are the highlights. Define natural language processing Explain how AI uses natural language processing to derive meaning from text Explain the classification problem and its solutions Describe how a chatbot understands, reasons, learns, and interacts with users Distinguish between intents, entities, and dialogs Identify appropriate uses for chatbots Identify real-world uses for natural language processing Describe how AI classifies images to derive meaning from them Describe how a convolutional neural network (CNN) analyzes an image Describe how a generative adversarial network (GAN) creates a credible image Identify real-world uses for computer vision |
 |
|
Each vendor of AI technology has a trademark name for
their proprietary AI. IBM is not new to the Artificial Intelligence field. Its Watson AI has been in service for several years now. This Watson Studio course will give you actual hands on work with IBM's Watson AI. In the course, you will: Describe machine learning algorithms and models Explain the purpose of IBM Watson Studio Describe the key features and benefits of IBM Watson Studio Set up a machine learning project in IBM Watson Studio Create a Cloud Object Storage resource Import a data set into IBM Watson Studio Build an AI model using AutoAI in IBM Watson Studio Run a prediction experiment for an AI model Explain the confusion matrix Save a model as a Jupyter Notebook Download a notebook in Jupyter Notebook (.ipynb) format |
. |
|
The ethical questions surrounding Artificial Intelligence have
been controversial since AI entered into the greater public discussion in 2023. The controversy mainly centers on biases in both the inception and execution of AI technology. In this course, the learning consists of: Identify the five pillars of AI ethics Describe fairness in AI Describe protected attributes Identify privileged groups and unprivileged groups Explain AI bias Identify robustness Describe adversarial robustness within AI Explain how an adversary can influence an AI system Identify adversarial attacks Describe explainability Compare interpretability and explainability Define transparency Describe governance Identify the business roles and the aspects of transparency they are involved in Identify personal information Identify sensitive personal information Recognize model anonymization Describe differential privacy Explain data minimization: |
 |
|
The last course surveys the job market in AI, and the type of
skills needed to land those jobs. The emphasis is on higher level programming skills. Although, ironically, the latest pronouncement of the skills needed for the AI job market, according to Matt Candy, global managing partner in generative AI at IBM, the skills needed for future employment in the AI field are those that come from "philosophy, literature, or anthropology." Nonetheless, this course will teach you how to: Identify industries in which AI professionals work Recognize the global demand for AI specialists in the job market Describe a possible future for AI Identify the primary responsibilities and skillsets for different job roles in AI Identify the skills that AI professionals need Identify the tools to know when starting out in the field Identify resources to learn more and stay up to date in the field of artificial intelligence |
 |
The Internet is ripe with various free courses in AI. Many rely on YouTube videos and other ways of learning that do not work for me. I can't follow videos as well as text and other more traditional ways of teaching things. Since most of the subject material is text based, you can pause the program to better take notes, or go back and review something you missed. Although a few videos are included in the teaching materials in the IBM courses, each of these courses mostly utilize the more conventional ways to present the material.
The other reason I choose this course was that I liked the notion of earning an IBM Credential in AI. Big Blue has been a major player in the field of AI longer than many other vendors. Furthermore, IBM has been equated with credibility in the computer industry for as long as there has been a computer industry.
So, if you got about 10 hours to spend over whatever time span you choose, and you would like to invest those 10 hours in learning all that you to need know to have a firm grasp and understanding of the many different facets of Artificial Technology, IBM's SiteBuilder is a great place to go. And you can't beat the price: It's FREEEEE!
Whether you get what you pay for will be in the eye of the beholder. Although, I got my money's worth.
Wake up, Maggie, I think I got somethin' to
say to you
It's late September and I really should be back at school
— Maggie May, Rod Stewart
Gerald Reiff
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