Understand how it actually works. Experiment until it clicks. Then build the ideas only you can imagine — ten levels, ten minutes each, in plain English, for people who were never told tech was for them.
Everyone lands somewhere different. All three paths run through the same ten levels — they just go different distances.
You've heard the noise and want the signal. Get a real mental model of AI and catch it making things up — tonight.
level — total beginner time — 30 min · levels 1–3 you leave with — a working BS detector start free → ai_makerYou make things — content, plans, projects, grades. Turn AI into a helper that knows your world and runs jobs on its own.
level — beginner · no code time — ~90 min · levels 1–8 you leave with — a tool people can use start free → ai_developerAll ten levels, then straight into the full coding path — terminal, Git, real deploys, an AI partner beside you the whole way.
level — ambitious beginner time — 2 hrs + the coding path you leave with — shipped software see the coding path →This is the entire mental model. Level 01 goes deeper on each step — but you can carry this version forever.
The model read an enormous amount of writing and learned what tends to follow what.
Your words become the setup. Everything you give it is the world it works from.
One small piece at a time, it picks the most likely next word. That's the whole engine.
Fluent, confident text — whether or not it's actually right. Confidence is free.
Checking, choosing, keeping your own voice — the human seat is the powerful one.
ai predicts. you decide.
Every level ends with something you did — not something you read. Start at 01 and climb.
What it actually is, how to ask it well, and how to hand it your world instead of trivia.
Build a helper you keep, and learn exactly when not to trust what comes back.
Connect it to your calendar, email and files — then give it a job that repeats.
Ship a tool people can use, open the black box, and decide if you want to build for real.
A strong prompt has three parts: a role, a specific task, and a format. Pick a preset or write your own — then copy the result into any AI and watch the difference.
Not certificates. Not badges. Real artifacts — each one bigger than the last, each one yours to show.
Your first hallucination, found on purpose. Proof you read AI critically — most adults can't.
Your own reusable ask — role, task, format — that beats 90% of what people type into these tools.
A study partner or reviewer loaded with your material, saved, reused every week.
Connected to your calendar or email, a job actually done — not described, done.
Your first automation: it runs while you sleep and is waiting for you at breakfast.
Something someone else can open, use, and be helped by. The moment "I use AI" becomes "I built this."
The people who check their facts, protect their privacy, credit their sources, and keep their own voice are the ones whose work gets trusted. Trust is the whole game.
Names, dates, numbers, quotes — confirm against a real source before you use them.
Passwords, addresses, other people's secrets — some things never get pasted into a chat.
Say what's yours, what's sourced, and where AI helped. Honesty reads as strength.
Models learned from the internet — ask whose voice is missing from the answer.
AI drafts, you decide. The moment it sounds like everyone, it stops sounding like you.
no degree. no permission slip. just ten minutes and a browser.
Small enough to do on the bus. One a day and you're done in two weeks.
Every level ends with one concrete thing to try, with the exact words to paste in.
The free tier of any major AI tool covers the whole course. No upsell is coming.
One of my missions as founder of Cadence is to enable as many young adults as possible to get into this field. Not someday, and not only the ones who already had a laptop and a family friend in tech — anyone willing to start. This is the front door.
Level 01 takes eight minutes and you'll catch an AI inventing facts before it's over.
▶ enter level 01