generative-ai-for-beginners

Generative AI for Beginners (Version 3) is a free, 21-lesson course from Microsoft Cloud Advocates for learning how to build generative AI applications. It combines 'Learn' lessons that explain concepts with 'Build' lessons that add hands-on code examples in Python and TypeScript where possible. The code can run against Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Foundry Models, the OpenAI API, or Foundry Local for fully offline use. A course setup lesson helps with preparing the development environment, and basic Python or TypeScript knowledge is recommended. Each lesson includes a short video introduction, a written README, code samples, and links to extra learning resources. Topics cover LLM fundamentals and model comparison, responsible AI, prompt engineering fundamentals and advanced prompts, text generation apps, chat applications, embeddings and vector search, image generation, low-code AI, function calling, UX design for AI, AI application security, the generative AI application lifecycle and LLMOps, RAG and vector databases, open-source models and Hugging Face, AI agents, fine-tuning LLMs, small language models, and Mistral and Meta model families. The repository is translated into more than 50 languages through automated GitHub Actions, and a sparse checkout command is provided to clone it without the large translation files. It also links to related Microsoft beginner courses, a .NET edition of the course, and a collection of more advanced generative AI code samples in Python and TypeScript. Learners can get support through the Microsoft Foundry Discord server and contribute by raising issues or creating pull requests.