Can I learn AI skills for free, and where do I start?

What this is, and what it is not

• It is a free, self-paced learning site run with AI. The lessons were drafted with AI and checked by an automated validator and a separate AI reviewer; a person has not read every lesson.
• It is not an accredited institution. It grants no degrees, diplomas or academic credit, and it is not affiliated with any university or accrediting body.
• The free certificate of completion is not a degree, credit, license, professional credential or vendor certification. It records that the named person passed that course's exam on that date. We do not check identity.
• The lessons teach with real AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by their makers.

Where to start: five courses, in this order

These are the first five of the 19 core AI courses, in the order the site recommends for a beginner. Each has five short lessons, a practice you do yourself in a free AI tool, and an exam.

1. 01AI foundations: what it is, how it works, where it failsA plain-language guide to what modern AI chat tools really are, how they produce text, why they sometimes make things up, and what they are good and bad at. For anyone starting from zero.Beginner · 5 lessons · about 40 min
2. 02Prompting that worksLearn a simple, repeatable way to ask AI for what you actually want: goal, context and format, plus examples, roles, step-by-step requests, iteration and reusable templates.Beginner · 5 lessons · about 35 min
3. 03Checking AI: sources, hallucinations and research you can trustBuild the habits that keep you from being fooled by confident-sounding AI. Learn to ask for sources, check them, read laterally, verify numbers, quotes and dates, and know when not to rely on AI.Beginner · 5 lessons · about 35 min
4. 04Safe, private and fair AI useLearn what happens to the things you type into an AI tool, how to protect private information, and how to use AI fairly and openly at work and at home.Beginner · 5 lessons · about 35 min
5. 05Choosing the right AI tool: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and others side by sideA tool-neutral guide to comparing AI assistants on your own tasks. You learn a fair test method, what to look for, how free and paid plans generally differ, and how to protect your privacy.Beginner · 5 lessons · about 35 min

After that, the AI Academy has more core courses (for example on specific AI assistants, spreadsheets, scams and deepfakes, and small business) and 40 “AI for your job” courses, each written for one occupation. See all of them on the AI Academy page, or find the course for your job.

How a course works

• You read short lessons on the page. There is nothing to buy and no account to create. Your progress saves in your browser.
• Each lesson has an AI tutor you can ask questions. It is a language model: it can help you understand the lesson, and it can be wrong.
• Each course ends with an exam, graded on the site's server. The pass mark is 8 of 10 on core courses and 7 of 8 on job courses.
• If you pass, you get a free certificate of completion with a link anyone can open to check that this site issued it. You enter the name you want on it.
• Course text is also offered in other languages, AI-translated. Coverage varies by course and by language, and every course is available in English.

Other free ways to practice

You can also practice directly in the free plans of AI assistants. Free plans, limits and features change often, so check each provider's own page for what is free today. Whatever you use, the habit that matters most is checking what AI tells you before you rely on it; the third core course here is about exactly that.