Professional Certificate in AI Foundations

What you will be able to do

• Explain in plain language what AI is and how it differs from ordinary software
• Describe how models learn from data and why they can be confidently wrong
• Recognize hallucination, bias and privacy risk in real situations
• Choose when AI genuinely helps a task and when it does not
• Apply a verification habit and a responsible-use approach at work

What is inside

6 modules, 30 lessons. Each module ends in a graded quiz and most carry an assignment.

1. 01

   What Artificial Intelligence Actually Is

   A genuine beginner's foundation that replaces marketing language with a working definition you can use in a real conversation. Covers why nobody agrees what the word means and what to ask instead, the difference between software that follows rules a person wrote and software that learns from examples, how artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative AI nest inside each other with no mathematics required, why a language model that predicts likely text is both impressive and confidently wrong, a short honest history and the three things that had to arrive together before this wave was possible, what people actually mean by 'a model', where AI already sits in an ordinary day, and a frank statement of what this course will and will not make you able to do. Taught throughout at Fernwood Books, a fictional independent bookshop whose owner Priya is trying to work out what any of this is worth to a small business.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions

2. 02

   How Machines Learn From Examples

   The heart of the whole subject, taught without any mathematics and without assuming you have ever used an AI tool. Covers the shift from telling a machine the rules to showing it examples and letting it work out its own, why the examples you choose quietly decide everything the system will ever do, what a pattern actually is and why prediction sits underneath every AI product you will ever meet, the three ways a machine can be given feedback and the fourth way that made modern chat assistants possible, the real difference between a system that recognizes, one that generates, and one that decides, and the mechanism that makes a model produce a wrong answer in a completely confident voice. Taught through Fernwood Books, a fictional independent bookshop whose owner Priya is working out what AI can genuinely do for a small business.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions

3. 03

   Generative AI and Large Language Models

   A plain English explanation of what actually happens when an AI assistant writes something for you. Covers what a large language model is doing when it produces text, next token prediction without any mathematics, why the writing sounds confident even when the content is wrong, where bias enters and why it is hard to see, the difference between the long training that happened before you arrived and the conversation you are having now, what the system does and does not remember between messages and between days, how image, audio and multimodal systems work and where their limits sit, and the difference between the model itself and the product built around it. Taught through Fernwood Books, a fictional independent bookshop whose owner Priya is working out what AI can genuinely do for a small business.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions

4. 04

   Limits, Hallucination, Bias and Risk

   The honest half of an AI education, taught so that you finish it more useful and less credulous than you started. Covers why hallucination is a structural feature of how these systems produce language rather than a defect waiting to be patched, where bias enters through data, through design choices, and through the way a tool is deployed, what actually happens to the words you type into a chat box and how to think about privacy in plain terms, the unsettled questions of copyright and ownership, deepfakes and the collapse of seeing is believing, the honest conversation about automation and jobs, and how to decide when a human must stay in the loop. Taught through Fernwood Books, a small independent bookshop whose owner Priya is working out what artificial intelligence can genuinely do for a business of five people.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions

5. 05

   Using AI Well and Responsibly

   The judgment layer that turns a person who has used an AI assistant into a person who can be trusted with one. Covers matching the tool to the task and recognizing the jobs these systems suit badly, verification habits that survive a busy day rather than an ideal one, keeping confidential and personal information out of tools that were never designed to hold it, when to disclose AI assistance and when disclosure is noise, a one page responsible use approach a five person team will actually follow, building judgment rather than quiet dependence, and a realistic method for keeping your knowledge current in a field where names, prices, and capabilities go stale within months. Taught through Fernwood Books, a fictional independent bookshop whose owner Priya is working out what AI can genuinely do for a small business.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions

6. 06

   AI in the Real World and What Comes Next

   The module that turns everything learned so far into judgment about the world outside the course. It tours how artificial intelligence actually shows up across retail, healthcare, education, public services, creative work and science, using realistic examples rather than promotional ones, and it explains the enormous distance between a demonstration that works on a Tuesday and a system that survives a year in production. It then covers agents and what AI that takes actions genuinely means, including where the permission boundary belongs and how these systems break; the regulation landscape at a concepts level, covering risk based rules, data protection, copyright and who actually enforces what; and a working method for separating credible progress from marketing, including why capability numbers go stale within months and what to read instead. Taught through Fernwood Books, a fictional independent bookshop whose owner Priya is working out what AI can genuinely do for a business with four part time staff and no technology budget. Carries the course capstone.

   5 lessons · 15 quiz questions · assignment