Introduction to Gen AI

Foundation AI Seminar

I gave a big-picture introduction to Generative AI, using the way I teach best: Excel as a giant whiteboard. I walked through four major types of modern AI systems—image generation, text (prompt completion), translation, and speech—and showed how they differ from classical discriminative AI.

We started with how traditional models classify inputs into a single number, then flipped that idea around to see how generative models expand small inputs into rich outputs like images, sentences, or audio. From there, I gradually “popped open the black boxes” to reveal what’s really inside: matrix multiplications, activations, probabilities, and sampling—no magic, just math running very fast.

I also traced how prompt completion works token by token, why responses can vary, and how encoder–decoder architectures power translation and speech. By the end, we even stepped through how audio tokens turn into actual waveforms.

My goal for this seminar—and for all the ones to come—is simple: help you see that modern AI isn’t mystical. With the right mental models, you can understand it, sketch it, and reason about it by hand. ✍️

Outline

1. Discriminative AI

   1. Image Classification

2. Generative AI

   1. Image Generation

   2. Prompt Completion

   3. Translation

   4. Text to Speech

Full Recording

The full recording and the associated Excel workbook are available to AI by Hand Academy members. You can become a member either (1) directly through the Academy or (2) via a paid Substack subscription. Both options provide the same access.