TechnologyThe BestieIntermediate
Working with Modern AI, a free technology course on Tomo

Working with Modern AI

Understand how contemporary artificial intelligence models actually process, reason, and generate information. Learn to steer models via structured outputs, ground them with retrieval systems, and navigate the architectural trade-offs powering modern AI applications.

Like Duolingo, but for Working with Modern AI. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

25 levels across 3 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Controlling Model Behavior; Extending AI with External Data; and Systems, Reasoning, and Inner Mechanics. It assumes you already know the basics.

25 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Ada the Axolotl, the guide who teaches the Working with Modern AI course
Working with Modern AI
with Ada the Axolotl
25
Levels
3
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Working with Modern AI

  • System prompts hold elevated steering priority across all dialogue turns.
  • User turns supply task inputs that can be overridden by system framing.
  • Assistant turns prime the AI by mocking desired prior responses in history.
  • Few-shot examples anchor structural formatting better than rules alone.
  • Autoregressive patterns mirror concrete input-output syntax cues.
  • Abstract descriptions frequently drift on subtle edge-case formatting.
  • Raw logits convert to probabilities across the entire active vocabulary.
  • Top-k drops everything outside the highest fixed number of candidates.
  • Top-p trims the remaining tail once cumulative probability is reached.
  • Each generated intermediate token serves as attention context for next tokens.
  • Forcing direct answers starves complex multi-step reasoning of compute.
  • Models cannot revise an emitted token without dedicated intermediate steps.
  • Specifying positive substitute behaviors prevents priming the forbidden word.
  • Applying API logit bias directly eliminates forbidden token probabilities.
  • Few-shot demonstrations show correct phrasing without naming the bad token.
  • The engine masks invalid vocabulary tokens at each generation step using the schema grammar
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Working with Modern AI the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Guiding Models with Roles and Examples

What happens when a user's input directly clashes with rules set in the system prompt?

Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.

Course map

Where Working with Modern AI takes you

  1. 1

    Controlling Model Behavior

    • Prompt Architecture and Steering Mechanics
    • Function Calling and Structured Outputs
  2. 2

    Extending AI with External Data

    • Vector Embeddings and Semantic Search
    • Retrieval-Augmented Generation Architecture
    • Adapting Models: Context vs Fine-Tuning
  3. 3

    Systems, Reasoning, and Inner Mechanics

    • Agent Workflows and Multi-Step Reasoning
    • Inside the Transformer Engine
    • Alignment, Guardrails, and Vulnerabilities

3 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

New

Tomo is in ChatGPT

Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.

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How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

Working with Modern AI is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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