Artificial Intelligence: The Foundations
A three-day class for general readers · Muzhumai Arivu, Nityavanam · 20–22
November 2026
Speaker: Dr. Prakash Selvakumar
AI/ML scientist and leader · PhD in AI/ML · 21 years in the field
Why this class?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already part of daily life. The map that finds the fastest route, the phone that unlocks on seeing your face, the shopping app that guesses what you want next, ChatGPT answering your questions: all of these are AI. Yet most of us use these tools every day without knowing what is happening inside. This class fills that gap. In three days, in plain language, you will learn what AI is, how it works, what it can and cannot do, and how to think clearly about it.
About the speaker
Dr. Prakash Selvakumar has worked in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for 21 years. He leads teams that build AI systems for large businesses in finance, supply chain, healthcare and insurance. He holds a PhD in AI/ML, where he researched how computers can read and understand human language. He has filed 10 US patents and has published more than 22 research papers at Indian and international conferences. In 2020 he was named among the “40 Under 40 Data Scientists” in India at the Machine Learning Developers Summit.
He learned this subject the slow way, from its foundations, and he believes that is what is missing today: many people try to use AI at a high level without understanding the ground beneath it. He teaches so that others can build that ground.
What you will learn, day by day
Day 1 (Friday) – What is Artificial Intelligence?
- The story of AI: how a 70-year-old idea became today’s everyday tool
- What “data” is, and how a machine learns patterns from it, the way a child learns to recognise a cat after seeing many cats
- The basic words you will keep hearing, explained simply: Machine Learning, Model, Training, Prediction
- Examples from daily life: maps, voice assistants, spam filters, movie recommendations
Day 2 (Saturday) – How does it actually work?
- Neural Networks: how a computer loosely imitates the brain, drawn step by step on the blackboard
- How ChatGPT and similar tools are built: what they read, how they learn to write, and why they sound so human
- Where they go wrong: confident but false answers, bias, and why “the computer said so” is not proof
Day 3 (Sunday) – AI and our lives
- How AI is changing work, education and everyday decisions
- Responsible AI: fairness, privacy, and who is answerable when a machine makes a mistake • How to keep learning after this class, and how to use AI tools wisely
- Open discussion: bring your questions
What you will take home
- A clear answer to “What is AI?” that you can explain to a friend
- The ability to read news about AI and judge what is real and what is hype • Confidence to use AI tools knowing their strengths and limits
- A foundation strong enough to go deeper if you wish
