Master LLMs in a Weekend

1.5 years ago, I left my PhD in AI to devote myself to "applied education": switching from the research state into concrete tools that teams can actually use and deploy.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that our first-ever fully video-based course, “10-Hour Primer: Building and Operating LLMs,” is now live!

That's for all of you asking for more video content! :)

From prompt to advanced workflows and agents in one concise program — and you can already watch the first 2-hour Fundamentals session for free on the course website (it’ll land on YouTube soon).

Start watching here → https://academy.towardsai.net/courses/llm-primer?ref=1f9b29

Why this course?

Since 2023, I’ve helped devs and data scientists bridge the gap between academic papers and real-world applications. We've started with our first "8-hour conversion" course, and the feedback was clear:

• Everyone knows they need to use LLMs.
• Very few understand what that actually means.
• Even fewer have a framework for deciding what to build, when, and how.

“Well-structured and accessible; the learning process becomes incredibly smooth.” — Dan Duggan

“Impressed by its completeness and clarity; it covers the entire spectrum of LLM engineering.” — Carlo Casorzo

“The best course to learn the latest RAG techniques.” — Patrick Drechsler

But one thing remained, especially from our previous conversion offer...

“I want only videos.” — Some people (we offered to refund)

This is because our courses are focused on doing. Not watching.

Our longer programs span 60+ hours and go deep into building full-stack AI systems. But most people don’t need that depth right away. What they need first is a clear map of the terrain—a way to understand what matters, what doesn’t, and where they personally should begin.

This is where this new 10-hour curriculum came about.

What you’ll learn in 5 modules (10 h):

• LLM Fundamentals & AI 101 — understand transformers, their limits, and how to choose the right model.

• Building on LLMs — advanced prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, and rapid deployment.

• Evaluation — auto metrics + human-in-the-loop for quality & safety.

• Workflows & Agents — orchestrate reliable, cost-effective multi-step agents.

• Optimization & Monitoring — distillation, quantization, RLHF, and defenses against prompt-hacking.

🎁 Bonus: ready-to-use notebooks, lifetime access and updates.

Who is it for?

Developers, students, upcoming ML/AI engineers, product/tech leads, entrepreneurs...

Know Python? Even better, but it’s not mandatory!

We do have some Python code, but we walk you through them and mainly use them for demonstrations.

It's the ideal offer if you’re preparing an enterprise GenAI integration, a side project, or a career pivot.

Get started now

👉 Enroll in the full course (10 h) at the launch price of $199.99: https://academy.towardsai.net/courses/llm-primer?ref=1f9b29

What learners are saying:

“Built from the ground up and geared toward real use cases.”

“The course greatly broadened my understanding of RAG pipelines.”

“Beyond the basics, it helps decide when and how to apply these technologies.”

“A clear roadmap for creating practical LLM apps.”

“An exceptional resource for mastering LLM development.”

“I learned a ton about deploying LLM apps.”

“Exactly what it promises—a fast‑paced, no‑fluff immersion that cuts through the hype and shows you how large‑language models actually work and where they belong in real products and workflows…What I valued most was the practical toolkit: prompt‑engineering best practices, RAG versus long‑context trade‑offs, vector database basics, fine‑tuning essentials, security and privacy[…].”

What else should you know?

• Fully video-based, self-paced
• Lifetime access + all future updates
• Private Discord with instructors + live Q&A
• Certificate of completion for your resume or LinkedIn
• Launch price: $199 (this will increase soon)

⚠️ Price Goes Up Soon

We’re soon adding a new 2-hour session on fine-tuning open models. If you enroll now, you’ll get it free—but the course price will increase once it's live.

👉 Start Your First Video Lesson

Learn faster. Avoid dead ends. And finally, understand what to do with LLMs.

Questions? Happy to answer!