The AI Study Guide: Azure’s top free resources for learning generative AI in 2024

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Hi! It's me, Natalie, you're Azure AI learning guru. Want to learn something about Azure AI? We've got something for that!

Welcome to the January edition of the Azure AI Study Guide. Every month I’ll bring you the best and newest tools when it comes to skilling up on Azure AI. This month, we’re all about Generative AI. Whether you are already building and training models or trying out a few AI tools for the first time, these free resources are for you.  

First, the fundamentals: 

1. Fundamentals of generative AI: By the time you’re done with this 40-minute course you’ll understand how large language models (LLMs) form the foundation of generative AI, what the term “copilot” means, and how to improve AI responses with prompt engineering.    
2. Fundamentals of Azure OpenAI Service: Learn to build enterprise-grade solutions for text summarization, code suggestions, and image generation using OpenAI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, paired with Azure OpenAI Service.  
3. Fundamentals of responsible generative AI: Check out this course to explore a set of responsible AI guidelines for generative AI, as defined by experts at Microsoft. It should take about 50 minutes to finish.  
4. Generative AI for beginners: This 12-lesson comprehensive course covers generative AI principles and application development so you can get an understanding of what it would take to build a generative AI startup with Microsoft Cloud Advocates on GitHub. 
5. AI in a minute video series: Demystify generative AI terminology and technology through these bite-sized videos. Subscribe to our Microsoft Cloud YouTube channel to keep up with a growing list of vitally important developments as this series grows. 

Next, start building solutions with generative AI: 

1. Get started with Azure OpenAI Service: Get the full Azure OpenAI Studio experience and bring generative AI models to life on the Azure platform. Learn the skills to develop powerful AI solutions—supporting workloads across vision, speech, language, decision, search, and more.  
2. Build natural language solutions with Azure OpenAI Service: Learn to integrate Azure OpenAI Service into your applications using Python and C# SDKs and REST APIs. This 1-hour module provides step-by-step guidance on building natural language solutions with generative AI.  
3. Apply prompt engineering with Azure OpenAI Service: Learn effective prompt engineering techniques to maximize the utilization of Azure OpenAI models in this comprehensive module. 
4. Generate code with Azure OpenAI Service: Generative AI can whip up all kinds of content, including code across multiple languages. In this module you’ll learn to use Azure OpenAI to generate code and assist in diverse development tasks. 
5. Generative images with Azure OpenAI Service: With the power of the DALL-E image generation model, Azure OpenAI can produce any kind of graphic you want based on your plain-language descriptions. Completing this module will allow you to use DALL-E to generate illustrations, photorealistic images, marketing collateral, unique logos, and much more. 
6. Use your data with Azure OpenAI Service: Maximize the potential of Azure OpenAI by integrating your own data sources. In this 30-minute module, discover how to seamlessly add your data to Azure OpenAI, allowing supported AI chat models to provide responses based on both your data and its pretrained knowledge. 
7. Fundamentals of responsible AI: Despite its powerful capabilities, generative AI poses certain risks. Navigate the guidelines for responsible generative AI built on Microsoft's responsible AI standard that accounts for considerations related to generative AI models in this module. 

Finally, get guided hands-on experience: 

1. Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Generative AI Fundamentals: Attend this free online training to gain foundational insights into language models and generative AI applications. Discover how Azure OpenAI Service helps you deliver results using text, code, image generation, natural language summarization, and semantic search. 
2. Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Building Generative Apps with Azure OpenAI Service: Join us to learn how to work with powerful large language models, including GPT. You’ll gain deeper insight into the benefits of natural language processing and discover how to provision Azure OpenAI, deploy models, and effectively use language models in generative AI applications. 

Last week we also kicked off the Generative AI with Azure OpenAI Cloud Skills Challenge, part interactive learning sprint, part good-natured competition between you and thousands of your peers around the globe. Advance your technical skills through task-based achievements and prepare for Microsoft role-based certifications. In about 18 hours, you'll learn how to train models to generate original content based on natural language input. 

For these and more AI training content, visit our AI learning hub.