Artificial Intelligence Basics for Students

AI is reshaping every industry — including in Sri Lanka, where companies from banking to agritech are deploying machine learning every day. Our 10-week Artificial Intelligence Basics for Students course gives Grade 9–13 students a real, grounded introduction to AI concepts and Python-based tooling — no hype, no magic, just clear explanations and hands-on projects.

Students learn what AI actually is (and isn't), how machine learning differs from traditional programming, the core ideas behind supervised and unsupervised learning, how neural networks work conceptually, the ethics of AI (bias, deepfakes, privacy), and how to use modern AI APIs responsibly. We cover the OpenAI and Anthropic Claude APIs, Google's free Gemini, and Hugging Face's pipeline library — all called from Python.

Three real projects: a sentiment-analysis tool that classifies positive and negative reviews of Sri Lankan products, an image classifier that identifies common Sri Lankan birds, and an AI chatbot tutor that helps with O/L Maths revision. Students also write a short critical-thinking essay on a Sri Lankan AI ethics scenario — this is increasingly important coursework for university entrance interviews in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Pre-requisite: basic Python (our Python Programming for Beginners course or equivalent). A laptop with 8 GB RAM minimum.

Course Outline

• Week 1: What is AI? Hype vs reality
• Week 2: Python refresher + numpy
• Week 3: Supervised learning concepts
• Week 4: First scikit-learn classifier
• Week 5: Sentiment analysis project
• Week 6: Neural networks explained
• Week 7: Image classification with Hugging Face
• Week 8: Working with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude)
• Week 9: AI ethics + bias workshop
• Week 10: AI chatbot tutor project + showcase