600+ learners. One community.

Build. Connect. Advance.
The future of AI research.

Join 600+ learners across Africa building the skills, connections, and research mindset to solve real-world problems with AI.

Join Discord Need help? Contact the team

Four learners collaborating around a laptop

About the virtual community cohort

A pan-African community of learners building modern AI research skills.

This virtual cohort brings together learners from across Africa who are passionate about AI research. Together, we learn from a world-class curriculum, support each other's growth, build real projects, and prepare to lead the next wave of AI innovation on the continent.

The courses

Eight courses, built from the ground up

You start by building a small language model, then add the techniques that turn it into a modern AI system, and finish with a real-world capstone. Scroll to climb the stack.

01 Build Your Own Small Language Model Establish the foundational concepts required to implement a small language model from scratch. View on Google Skills

02 Represent Your Language Data Master the techniques for preparing text data, specifically focusing on tokenization, embeddings, and vector representation. View on Google Skills

03 Design and Train Neural Networks Implement and evaluate neural networks like the multilayer perceptron while learning to diagnose and mitigate issues like overfitting. View on Google Skills

04 Discover the Transformer Architecture Investigate the core mechanisms of the transformer architecture, by implementing self-attention and multi-head attention. View on Google Skills

05 Fine-tune Your Model Apply transfer learning techniques to adapt the pre-trained model for specific tasks using a smaller, targeted dataset. View on Google Skills

06 Align Your Model Implement safety and alignment techniques (RLHF) to ensure the model outputs are helpful, harmless, and honest. View on Google Skills

07 Accelerate Your Model Optimise the model's performance for faster inference and reduced latency using quantization techniques. View on Google Skills

08 Capstone Project Develop your model for real-world impact: synthesise all learnt skills to deploy a fully functional model that solves a tangible real-world problem. View on Google Skills

Get onboarded

Your first week, step by step

A simple path to get set up, meet the community, and start learning with confidence.

Create your account
Join the Discord community
Introduce yourself in #introductions
Complete the orientation module
Set your learning goals
Start the AI Research Foundations course
Engage, collaborate, and have fun

Get started on Discord

What you will do

More than a course. A movement.

Learn

Complete the AI Research Foundations course and gain cutting-edge, research and industry-ready skills.

Connect

Build relationships, collaborations, and a strong network of peers that inspire, challenge, and support you.

Build

Work on real-world research projects, hackathons, and challenges, with guidance from mentors who have walked the path.

Contribute

Help grow and strengthen a thriving community of AI research learners across Africa.

Need help?

Our team is here for you. Reach out any time.

Contact the team

Join our Discord community

Connect, collaborate, and grow. Be part of the conversation.

Join Discord

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about joining the community and learning with us. Still curious? Ask us any time on Discord.

What is AI Research Foundations?

AI Research Foundations is a practical curriculum from Google DeepMind that teaches you how to build and understand modern AI systems, from small language models to transformers, through hands-on projects. The virtual community cohort is a supportive space where learners across Africa work through it together.

Who can join this community?

Anyone across Africa who is curious about AI research and willing to learn. Students, graduates, researchers, and professionals are all welcome. A basic comfort with programming helps, but the curriculum starts from the fundamentals.

Is there a cost to join?

No. The community and the AI Research Foundations curriculum on Google Skills are completely free. All you need is your time and commitment.

How do I get help if I am stuck?

Ask in the Discord community. Peers and the team are there to help, and the weekly conversations and study groups mean you are never learning alone. You can also reach the team by email any time.

What if I fall behind in the course?

That is completely fine. The curriculum is self-paced, so you can learn at a rhythm that fits your life. Jump back in whenever you are ready, and lean on the community to catch up.