Generative AI for Beginners

Generative AI for Beginners is a free, comprehensive course created by Microsoft Cloud Advocates to teach the fundamentals of building applications powered by Generative AI. Spanning 21 lessons, the course is designed so learners can start with any topic that interests them, mixing conceptual Learn lessons with hands-on Build lessons that include working code in both Python and TypeScript.

Each lesson pairs a short video introduction with a written README, runnable code samples, and links to further resources. Learners can run the exercises using Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Foundry Models, the OpenAI API, or Foundry Local for fully offline use, giving flexibility depending on available cloud access. A dedicated Course Setup lesson helps students prepare their development environment before diving in.

Key features include:

• Prompt engineering — fundamentals and advanced techniques for crafting effective prompts
• Text and chat applications — building generation and conversational apps with LLMs
• Vector search and RAG — using embeddings and Retrieval Augmented Generation with vector databases
• Image generation — creating applications that generate images
• Function calling and AI agents — integrating external tools and building agent-based applications
• Fine-tuning and SLMs — customizing models and working with Small Language Models, including Mistral and Meta families
• Responsible and secure AI — guidance on building applications responsibly and securely

The repository is community-driven, welcoming issues and pull requests, and supports over 50 language translations maintained through automated GitHub Actions. Learners can get support through the Microsoft Foundry Discord server and developer forum. The project is licensed under the MIT License and is part of a broader family of Microsoft 'for Beginners' courses covering AI, machine learning, and related developer topics.