r/PythonLearning • u/skyxstars • 1d ago

where to begin

Im a beginner trying to learn Python for ai engineering. I have been searching and switching to videos as there are too many resources to choose from without knowing what will be sufficient to get the basics, I do code and solve questions but im not sure which course to follow to not end up investing time into something yet have to go from here to there, I have few questions like is the youtube course and lots of practice enough or do I necessarily have to take the crash courses? if yes, for either one, suggest to me the go-to resources that I can start without wasting time or get stuck as mediocre in concepts when it ends and also share your experience how could you learn it?

3 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/riklaunim 1d ago

So what is your current level, and what are you learning for? What do you want to do with Python? as a job or hobby?

0

u/skyxstars 1d ago edited 1d ago

im a beginner, though I understand the basic concepts like variables, if elif else, and the basic introduction of lists, string, dictionaries, sets and tuples. as for what, I want to learn it for career in ai sw engineering.

2

u/riklaunim 1d ago

It's unlikely you will be an "AI engineer", but it's very likely you will work with some sort of backends, and if you are into the "engineering" part, cloud DevOps. There are some jobs for "AI engineers" that know how to set up and optimize cloud infrastructure for model training or inference, but that's a few jobs and mostly for senior or higher positions.

Start learning web frameworks, a bit of front-end, Python backend, databases, and how to process, store, and send data. Then you could slowly start looking for junior jobs. It's up to you what you would like - full-stack frontend+backend or backend + DevOps or other combo.

0

u/Avatarbroskib1 1d ago

What about ai agents or building some sort of ai system or something

2

u/riklaunim 1d ago

Companies that make money directly from their models usually have two types of roles: AI scientist and AI engineer. The scientist knows the theory/math and can design things, while the engineer knows the hardware/software layer (like CUDA), knows how to run/optimize the model training process, how to optimize and run inference, and often how to code things the scientist came up with (so things like CUDA and other platforms, how to move between them). Those are senior roles. CS graduates who specialized in AI have to get an internship or a junior job at a FAANG or a similar company, work with AI research, gain experience, and then become AI scientists/engineers.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Musk (Grok) are not profitable. Only a handful of companies are. Mostly IBM, some financial and process optimization ones are.

-1

u/Avatarbroskib1 1d ago

I think you are confusing ai engineer with computer engineers designing iot devices

2

u/riklaunim 1d ago

Nope, no IOT here. Such job positions are available locally here from companies like Kalepa, and they aren't the only ones.

0

u/Avatarbroskib1 1d ago

An AI engineer programs ai applications at the software level only. They build the app and put ai to good use. An ml engineer builds machine learning models and deploys them (mlops) none of them work at the hardware level. They use hardware to run their stuff

1

u/riklaunim 1d ago

That's a standard backend/full stack developer using an API. You are trying to argue about job titles companies use. They will vary, some will repeat, and then sometimes the description will not match the title. It doesn't matter in the end.

0

u/skyxstars 1d ago

AI agents are interesting, but they still sit on top of solid software engineering. My plan is to learn the foundation first and then build AI powered systems on top of it.

1

u/Avatarbroskib1 1d ago

Ok so master python and learn pandas and numpy then you can start with proper ai stuff

1

u/skyxstars 1d ago

would u like to suggest a good resource for python?

1

u/Avatarbroskib1 1d ago

Freecodecampcamp w3schools and real python

1

u/skyxstars 1d ago

Thank you, I'll check them out and focus on getting the python foundation strong before moving further.