Written by Hector Garcia
@hex.garEstimated reading time: 5 min read
5 free resources to start learning AI
AI Consultant
GuidesReading time: 5 min read
Most people think getting into AI requires a computer science degree or an expensive course. It doesn't. These five platforms are where working AI developers actually learn, build, and ship. All of them are free to start.
How to use this list
Don't try to use all five at once. Pick one, spend a week with it, and build something small. Then move to the next. The order below is the fastest path from zero to your first working AI project.
The 5 resources
1. Google AI Studio
- Go to Google AI Studio and sign in with your Google account
- Get a free API key: this gives you real access to Gemini
- Build one small thing: a chatbot, a summarizer, a Q&A tool. Anything real.
2. Hugging Face Spaces
- Go to Hugging Face Spaces and browse what's there
- Try 5 different AI apps in the browser, no account or setup needed
- Pick one that does something useful and figure out how it works
3. Anthropic Cookbook
- Open Anthropic Cookbook on GitHub
- Pick any notebook that matches something you want to build
- Copy the code, run it, and change one thing. That's how you learn.
4. OpenAI Cookbook
- Open OpenAI Cookbook on GitHub
- Same format as the Anthropic Cookbook but for GPT models
- Read the examples even if you don't run them: seeing how others structure AI apps is the lesson
5. Prompt Engineering Guide
- Go to Prompt Engineering Guide and start with the Introduction
- Learn the core techniques: zero-shot, few-shot, chain of thought
- Practice each technique with any free AI tool. Don't just read. Apply it.