6 HN users recommended this tutorial5 months2016–2017score 5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters recommend it as an approachable first step into machine learning for programmers, with an apples-vs-oranges classifier.
The first episode of Google's Machine Learning Recipes series. It introduces machine learning and builds a first supervised-learning classifier in about six lines of Python using scikit-learn.
“Very approachable! The first lesson is a classifier to separate apples and oranges.” (HN, 2016)
This series by Josh Grodin got started recently and looks promising. I assume they will eventually cover neural network / deep learning basics. Hello World - Machine Learning Recipes #1 [this video] Visualizing a Decision Tree - Machine Learning Recipes #2 [link]
Hello, my background is just like yours. Assuming you are a total noob I learned that AI is not like programming, where anyone with basic knowledge of computation can dive in. You can NOT just learn AI by reading other people's code. Its like Physics, there are solid principles you need to understand before you get in. The point: AI does not come with the "batteries included". If you are in deed a noob you MUST learn the prerequisites. Follow these steps in order and I guarantee you will be competent with AI in six months tops.(from my past experience) - 1. Know what AI actually is [link] - 2. Write basic Machine Learning code [this video] - 3. Understand the Mathmatics involved [link] - 4. Get some important concepts, [link] - 5. Finnish off. [link]
Honestly, it doesn't seem that complicated. Just watch this educational video series [this video] by Google, and you'll be able to do cool stuff with machine learning.
Accessible Google series for getting started with machine learning.
You could watch the 'Hello World' Machine Learning Recipes videos by Josh Gordon at Google. Very approachable! The first lesson is a classifier to separate apples and oranges. [this video]
Approachable intro building an apples vs oranges classifier.
Why book? I don't know about you or your cousin, but learning from a book is so slow and dry. Why not a video series or online tutorial? Hell, maybe teach him the basics and build a small project with him. Codecademy is a great way to learn a bit of syntax and then build something. 'How to make a website' is a good intro course for getting into web dev. There's also a lot of good python basic videos on YouTube, then he could dive into ML/AI with: Machine Learning Recipes from Josh Gordon at Google [this video] Siraj Raval's channel on ML/AI/Programming [link] All that said, if you reallllly want a book: "Learn Python the hard way" by Zed Shaw [link]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
6 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Read more
Read more