Neuro-literacy: Free AI Course

Everyone talks about neural networks, yet it is hard to tell where a beginner should start. Paid courses can cost a lot, and free ones are often scattered across the internet. Neuro-literacy ("Нейрограмотность") is a free course on artificial intelligence that you take inside Telegram 🎓

Video lessons sit on a video platform, written summaries are published as articles, and assignments, practice and the exam wait in the bot. There is no enrollment date, so you can start any day.

Over a hundred lessons and no deadline

The course has more than 100 lessons, and the authors keep updating them. Each one takes 5 to 15 minutes, and most end with a short task such as answering questions or writing your own prompt.

After two introductory lessons you can go in any order. Want practice first? Go to practice. Need background? Open theory.

Theory from history to ethics

The theory part is split into four modules:

• AI basics (12 lessons): prompts explained plainly and a history of the field from 1921 to 2024.
• Services overview (12 lessons): which neural networks exist and what each is good for.
• Copyright and ethics (4 lessons): who owns a generated image and what to do about it.
• People in an AI world (2 lessons): how work is changing and what stays with humans.

Practice, where skills actually form

Reading about neural networks helps, but the skill appears after you write your own requests. The practice section is built around a companion bot: an introduction (3 lessons), text neural networks (5), image generation (10), avatars (2) and music (1).

The course states that it gives trial access to popular neural networks. Check the bot for the exact scope and terms 🧪

Case tracks for your own life

A separate section shows how AI is used in concrete situations. Open tracks cover school, foreign languages, applying to a university abroad, education, family, fashion, science and influencer marketing. Several more are marked as coming soon.

It is handy if you would rather skip general theory: pick your topic and go straight there.

The exam and the certificate

The exam opens once you finish more than half of the lessons in the About, Theory and Practice sections. You take it in the bot, it lasts 20 to 30 minutes, and you can retake it if it goes badly.

Passing earns a specialized certificate. How an employer treats it depends on the employer, so do not expect miracles from the paper 📜

Who will enjoy it and who will be bored

The authors target beginners: students, parents, teachers, managers, entrepreneurs and marketers, including people who tried neural networks and saw no point. Developers and daily AI users will probably find it too basic.

The author is Anna Veklich, and the program was made by the team behind a neural network bot service in Telegram. There is a support contact for questions and a community for news and webinars.

Before you begin

1. Plan your time. A hundred lessons at 5 to 15 minutes each is many evenings, so one lesson a day is a fair pace.
2. Keep personal data out. Do not paste passport details, passwords or other people's texts into prompts.
3. Mind the date. The course was created in 2024, and neural networks change fast, so some interfaces may look different today.