
Microsoft makes AI training courses available to the public - rbanffy
https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/microsoft-professional-program-ai/?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=je6NUbpObpQ&ranSiteID=je6NUbpObpQ-.mMWLBjZC7qyEtfMELrweg&tduid=(2439940df6f0d43345c136d9b28a9c0f)(256380)(2459594)(je6NUbpObpQ-.mMWLBjZC7qyEtfMELrweg)()
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dalbasal
At least from the 1st few comments, it seems that people want to point out the
ploy to get you using MS' products/tools rather than give you a wide, general
education.

So... I don't mind this. Learning via a toolset is an OK approach, in a lot of
cases. I personally like it. Realistically, a big part of basic competency is
familiarity with a functional toolset anyway. Some people will expand their
toolsets later.

Also, if MS succeed in providing good learning tools as a way of creating
demand for their services, this is cool too. Ideally AWS and others will
continue to do the same, and there'll be an incentive to create and maintain
free courses.

If you want a more general/abstract course, these exist too. This just isn't
it.

Based on a quick glance I'd say the course wants to get you to a point where
you connect to data, do a little cleanup coding, use it to build a model &
then turn it all into a web service. It probably has a little bit of stats &
ML "theory," but not a lot. This is useful if its useful to you. If you're
mostly interested in theory, this just isn't for you. Try the big coursera
course, maybe.

~~~
stochastic_monk
fast.ai’s course looks great, and they even have a numerical linear algebra
course.

For a theoretical background, I particularly like the Shai-Shalev Schwartz
book, though it’s not about deep learning. I’m told the Goodfellow book is
good only in the sense that a better book simply doesn’t exist.

~~~
bitL
If you are looking for profound theoretical insights in Deep Learning, you
will be disappointed, but amazed with classical ML. If you are looking for
practical capabilities, you'd be amazed by Deep Learning but frustrated with
classical ML. Deep Learning is fairly trivial math-wise (unless you look
carefully into non-linear optimization it uses, which is as brutal as any
other advanced part of math).

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smrtinsert
So I just signed up, and I see that this is implemented as a track, meaning
there are several edX courses required to complete it. Among those are Python
for Data Science, Math for Artificial Intelligence, legal stuff, NLP etc.

I like how comprehensive this is. The problem (as I've stated before) with
Ng's course is he hand waves a lot of the required math away which concerns
me. Specifically vectorization I remember constantly being surprised what was
possible mathematically instead of 'getting it'.

That said, is there an AWS version of this track? Maybe Math/Spark/Scala/ML
oriented?

I do like that it seems comprehensive, so I think I'll invest time into doing
it.

~~~
westonplatter0
Which toolsets does this course rely on?

~~~
gaius
This programme is all Python in Jupyter, backed by Azure. You can use their
hosted one or spin up your own with Conda.

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mephitix
I find it interesting/good that there’s an ethics course in their track.

At least from the other specializations ive seen I haven’t seen this yet...

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2_listerine_pls
I tried a couple of Microsoft's edx courses. Their strategy is to get you to
use the their tools rather than teaching you.

~~~
diego_moita
Funny, I tried a couple of them too and got both: teaching and marketing.

Same happened on Google (AdWords, App Engine), Apple (XCode), Amazon (AWS),
...

~~~
gaius
If you see Linux Foundation’s EdX course on blockchain of course they teach it
with Hyperledger... Everyone uses their own toolset, why wouldn’t they?

(I didn’t take that course)

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DoctorOetker
does anyone know if the courses are actually free (as in free beer)?
Universities have been making training courses "available to the public" for
ages...

EDIT:

never mind, the small FAQ at the bottom links to the bigger real FAQ at
[https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/faq/](https://academy.microsoft.com/en-
us/faq/)

there the section "How much will this cost" reveals:

"You must purchase Verified Certificates from edX.org as proof of the
successful completion of courses in the Microsoft Professional Program. The
cost for Verified Certificates varies by course. The prices are published in
the course information on the edX site. You may always audit the course for
free on edX.org, but "audit mode" does not provide MPP credit. Pricing is
subject to change. Additional charges may apply."

this is clickbait advertising...

EDIT 2:

Oh its not that bad:

"Can I take the courses in the track and not sign up for the Verified
Certificates of completion from edX.org? You are welcome to audit any online
course for free. However, the only way to receive completion credit toward an
MPP learning path is to obtain a Verified Certificate from edX.org."

~~~
gaius
_Oh its not that bad_

As in, it is exactly what it claimed to be all along? Maybe online courses are
not for you if you need to be spoonfed?

~~~
DoctorOetker
That I can't say, possibly yes possibly no:

I read some of the other commenters who claimed that the tutorials were more
like teaching how to use Microsoft tools. At this point I started visualizing
"tutorials" on how to open and close their application, describing the GUI
layout, the workbenches, ... which is not hard for me to imagine about
microsoft. I simply did not feel like checking for myself, since I would risk
wasting my time. Time better spent reading actual articles...

~~~
gaius
Great imagination you have. Must come in very handy, no need to do research,
go straight on the Internet and post your conclusions!

~~~
dang
Could you please stop posting uncivil comments to HN, regardless of how wrong
someone is?

If you'd (re-)read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and use this site as intended, we'd appreciate it.

~~~
gaius
Sorry. Was just irritated by all the negativity on this one.

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NickM
This looks really cool, and kudos to them making it free. However, this seems
very much applied, and I'd really like a course that dives more into the math
and theory of AI, neural networks, deep learning, etc. etc. Anyone have any
recommendations for any video lecture series, MOOCs, or anything like that?

~~~
Retric
The importance of math in understanding AI is kind of overblown. Binary Neural
Networks for example are in theory worse, but the savings in computational
time makes up for quite a bit.

That said, a wide foundation including a deep understanding of linear algebra
is more useful than just covering the specifics relevant to AI.

~~~
globuous
That makes sense. But for me for instance, who's trying to learn about AI and
have a math background, I like courses that explain the math behind everything
because it makes it easier to understand the concepts. It's also a good way to
check that I understand what's going on. And finally, I find it easier to skim
over a text has equations, they easier to parse for me since I'm a slow prose
reader. So I can go through a text by skimming through the math, and when I
stop understanding, I try to backtrack what's going on and only move on once I
understand what was blocking me.

EDIT: And this applies to everything. Ex: I've been playing the guitar for
over a decade but have been struggling with music theory. I've recently tried
to apply the little algebra I know to it to try and find structure. I've found
some really cool articles, for instance [0], and it's helped quite a bit
believe it or not !! For French speakers that like music, math, and
algorithms, I highly encourage a presentation by Moreno Andreatta [1] where he
closes the presentation by performing a "rotation around the Do of the
Beatles' Hey Jude".

[0]
[http://repmus.ircam.fr/_media/moreno/BigoAndreatta_Computati...](http://repmus.ircam.fr/_media/moreno/BigoAndreatta_Computational_Musicology.pdf)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3528&v=cFiT9StEy...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3528&v=cFiT9StEy00)

~~~
dalbasal
Recent report from my mother, who's a physicist with a strong math background,
no statistics: Take the coursera intro course.

She said that the first hour or two were a little frustrating for the kinds of
reasons you mention. After that, she could skip the "long" explanations &
examples by going to the math directly. You'll progress 5X faster than normal
after that.

She "got it" by creating ML "proofs" for math problems without doing math. She
didn't like all the image recognition examples. Said it's a confusing place to
start.

You are probably stuck with learning from a source that assumes you don't know
math, because most people (including me) don't. This course is probably not
for you if you want theory, as it's focused on "using" ML algorithms, not
writing them. That said, this might be useful to you if you already have stuff
that you want to do, and need a way of doing the "sticks and duct tape."

~~~
NickM
Sorry, which Coursera intro course?

~~~
dalbasal
"Machine Learning" by Andrew Ng, Standford

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-
learning](https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning)

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web007
@dang & co: That URL...

[https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/microsoft-professional-
progra...](https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/microsoft-professional-program-ai/)

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blahblah12
It looks like the courses use cognitive toolkit aka CNTK for deep learning.
This is sort of the equivalent of watching a class from Google where they use
tensorflow or fb where they use pytorch.

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ofrzeta
There are several courses in that "class" (over the course of a year) that
require access to the Azure cloud. The free Azure trial runs only 30 days,
though.

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partycoder
It looks like they are teaching how to integrate the Microsoft APIs to
implement AI-based solutions, rather than learning about AI or ML.

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chimtim
is it just me or these are really poorly designed courses? I took the RL
course and it first started describing papers in RL with little context (under
applications of RL). The course then jumped to bandits and I was hoping it
will describe the foundations but it assumed students know about the regret
minimization framework. Researchers are traditionally not the best educators
-- I usually pick tutorials in conferences that are done by professors as
opposed to researchers despite their content.

~~~
gaius
_but it assumed students know_

You jumped straight in at the 8th course in the programme and are complaining
that it assumes you know something?

So many people on this thread looking for any nitpick they can, we get it
guys, you just hate Microsoft. This isn't for you, then, no-one's pointing a
gun at your head and saying, take this free course.

~~~
chimtim
I went through all of them and I did not see any regret minimization
background. If you think there is, please point me to it and clear my
misunderstanding.

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staticelf
Enrolled, but I doubt I will learn that much more than just using their
cognitive services which seems cool and all, but that is not really doing AI
yourself. Is it?

~~~
arbie
Cognitive Services may or may not usher it in, but the inevitable
democratization of AI means the definition of "doing AI" will eventually be
the same as "doing Excel". i.e., it is just a means to an end, and the
underlying level of automation is irrelevant.

~~~
dalbasal
I agree, but "doing excel" may not cover the potential. Maybe it will be more
like "doing web."

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bitL
10 courses? Seems like a lot of effort for just a certificate. Some top online
schools award you a recognized M.S. after 10 courses...

~~~
gaius
It was originally called the Microsoft Professional Degree, but they rebranded
it to Programme, presumably after some negative feedback

------
falcor84
Following the fiasco with Tay, I think it's better if 4chan were to teach this
course.

EDIT: the more I think about this, the more I like the idea of a course about
an adversarial approach to AI. They could name it something like "Abusing
public machine learning services for fun and profit". And given the previous
successful work on Katawa Shoujo, I really believe that 4chan could pull this
off.

