AI/ML for Beginners

Artificial Intelligence is the new gold rush. Every week, hundreds of boot camps and universities promise the same thing: "Become an AI/ML Engineer in 6 months and land a $200,000 job at Google or NVIDIA." The reality is much harsher — and far more interesting. AI/ML engineering is not a short course. It's a rigorous engineering discipline that blends mathematics, computer science, and large-scale distributed systems. Success requires not just theory but hands-on experience: debugging CUDA errors at midnight, running multi-week training jobs, and managing expensive GPUs that crash unpredictably. This handbook was written to bridge the gap between what's marketed and what's required. It is not a motivational book; it is a field manual — based on years of practical experience in engineering, architecture, and experimentation. You'll find three things here: Clarity — what real AI/ML engineers actually do. Direction — how to progress from beginner to practitioner. Truth — why 90% of courses don't prepare you for real work. By the end of the book, you will know what it truly takes to move from AI enthusiast to AI engineer.