“I want to learn AI but I can’t program in Python” — Here’s my advice to you.

When I tell people that I do machine learning and AI work at my job, variations of this are the most common responses that I receive. Sadly, most people see the need to learn programming as an insurmountable barrier to breaking in to the AI field and their aspirations stop there. If that’s you, I’ve got good and bad news for you.

Bad news: You WILL need to learn programming , especially in Python (at least as of 2019), and you will need to put in some effort.

Good news: It’s nowhere near impossible and there are probably many people who were even less capable than you (and with families and other obligations) who managed to be proficient at it.

Google (or your favorite search engine) is your friend

Nowadays, when you ask someone (other than a close friend or relative) “how do I do X”, their response is usually “please Google X”. And I don’t blame them either: there is a vast wealth of information available via the Internet these days that dwarfs the knowledge of even the most intelligent and capable humans on the planet. Unfortunately, if you’ll likely be dead in the water quick when you take this approach and Google something like “dogs vs cats in Python”. You’ll see a large swath of solutions in your…