Week 1: Foundations
Day 2: Machine Learning vs Generative AI
Goal
Separate traditional machine learning from generative systems like chatbots and image models.
Learn
Machine learning usually predicts, classifies, ranks, or detects. Generative AI creates new text, images, audio, code, or video based on a prompt. A spam filter, recommendation system, and face detector are machine learning. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and image/video generators are generative AI interfaces built on large models.
Behind the scenes
AI tools are products wrapped around models, data, prompts, retrieval, safety systems, and user interfaces. The better you understand the wrapper, the better your results get.Example
A spam filter predicts whether a message is junk. A chatbot generates a new reply. Both are AI, but they do different work.
Practice
List five AI tools you have seen. Label each one as prediction, classification, generation, search, automation, or a mixture.
Checkpoint
Checkpoint
You can tell whether a tool is predicting, generating, retrieving, or taking action.