Generative AI Unleashed: From Basics to Building
Saturday, April 26 2025. 9:00 AM - noon
Saturday, April 26 2025. 9:00 AM - noon
Last updated: April 28, 2025
This workshop was conducted on April 26. If you want, you can register for two more upcoming workshops here:
Are you ready to harness the power of Generative AI? Join us for an intensive, hands-on journey that will transform your understanding of this revolutionary technology.
Starting with an introduction to Artificial Intelligence, we’ll discuss what Generative AI is.
Then we'll discuss some of the cool applications of Generative AI that require nothing but intelligent prompting.
Later, through an interactive, code-centric approach, participants will engage in a structured learning experience with topics such as
text generation models,
speech-to-text conversion, and
advanced image generation technologies.
Note: If you need to brush up your knowledge of Python and (conventional ML/AI), see the related pages:
Fun with Python Programming, https://sites.google.com/view/funwithpythonwithali
Machine Learning For Non-Computer Science Majors, https://sites.google.com/view/aiandml4all/home
If your knowledge of Python is a bit rusty and incomplete, you can search YouTube videos on the subject, especially looking for videos that use jupyter notebooks or Google Colab. See 'Welcome to Colab' by Google. Here is my 'Fun with Python Programming' page that can be of help.
First of all, you need an environment (called IDE or Integrated Development Environment, etc.) to type and execute your code. We'll use Google Colab and if you have a Gmail account, you already have access to it. Google Colaboratory is free and requires no setup and is great to start with Python. It has limited storage space and may be slow at times. But it is sufficient for this short course. Check this link and see if it works for you: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1HEkVymxOvXvE77epZl_D2oQa2KWOrWeD?usp=sharing.If you have a Chromebook, it will run on that too as the only thing it needs is the Chrome browser. Hence Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebooks, and cell phones/tablets of all types can be used and if it works, you are all set! Note that smaller devices like iPads may be showing you a reduced version of the site. In the settings of that page, there is an option called "Desktop site" or "Show Desktop site". Click on it to see the various options like File, Run, etc.
You may want to check a short video to make you feel better about Google Colab, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inN8seMm7UI
We'll use Stability.AI's free account. The free account gives you a chance to run the whole code ONCE. That is good enough to see the power.
But if you must pay, $10 gets you 1000 credits and that is a lot. Get the API Key from https://platform.stability.ai/.
You'll need to setup an account at https://www.together.ai/ . Go to settings (upper right corner) and then to 'API KEYS' in the left column.
Prompting for Image and Video Generation
Prompting for Games and Mathematics
Fine Tuning and RAG without Programming
Image Generation and Debugging Using Python
All of the above as one single set: Click here to see the Google Slides