Link to Coursera - Deeplearning.AI Python for Beginners Course: Link.

Instructor: Andrew Ng.

ROUGH NOTES (!)
Updated: 22/9/2026

[Module 1. Basics of AI Python Coding]

[Introduction]

(These are rough notes of what the instructor mentions).

Welcome to AI Python for Beginners.

Whatever your job role and career goals are, ​including if it’s not to become an AI developer or software engineer, I’m glad you’re here. I hope to show you by the end of this course that coding is useful, fun, and can help you in ​your day-to-day work and life.

Benefits of learning to code: Ten years ago, if you’d asked me if everyone should learn to code, ​I would have said no. Because learning to code took quite a bit of work, and it wasn’t clear, ​what exactly the use cases were for people beyond really technical roles. But with the rise of AI, ​specifically tools like chat GPT and generative AI, I think that equation has changed. I’m seeing ​that many people in journalism, marketing, or business research, or investing or administrative ​roles are finding it useful to be able to write a little bit of code in their work and get things ​done. And if you can learn to write just a little bit of code, you’ll be much more effective at ​many types of work, especially knowledge work.

Coding with a chatbot companion: Since the release of chat GPT and the wide ​availability of many generative AI tools, the way that people write code is different. ​Specifically, with a chatbot companion, you never have to code alone. So it’s as if you always have ​a buddy next to you that’s actually pretty good at coding and can help you along with writing code. This makes learning to code much easier. And later, once you’re writing code yourself, ​an AI chatbot also makes your job much easier because you have this experienced buddy to help ​you along every single step. So these new AI tools have dramatically reduced the cost and effort ​needed to learn to code.

Coding with a chatbot companion: Now, there are a lot of coding courses out there on the internet. ​One thing that distinguishes this course from many of those out there is you learn this new ​methodology of working alongside a chatbot while you code right away. So you’ll be learning skills ​that I think will be much more future-proof and more aligned with the way that professional coding ​is trending.

Coding with a chatbot companion: With the widespread availability of AI, what you find is that you can really get AI ​to do a lot more for you if you know just a little bit of coding. And that means that because AI is ​impacting pretty much all knowledge work, if you work in a knowledge worker type of job role, ​or maybe even if you don’t, your ability to write just a little bit of code will be, I think, a ​significant productivity enhancer for you.

Coding is fun: So I hope you enjoy the course. Beyond it being ​practical and useful, I also don’t want to understate that I think coding is just really fun. When you learn to code just a little bit, you’ll be able to do a lot of stuff that you just couldn’t ​before, and I and many of my friends find that really fun, and I hope you will too.