Introducing beginners to the mechanics of machine learning – Miriam Posner
January 14, 2026
Every year, I spend some time introducing students to the mechanics of machine learning with neural nets. I definitely don’t go into great depth; I usually only have one class for this. But I try to unpack at least some of the major concepts, so that ML isn’t quite such a black box.
Whether you’re an AI critic or enthusiast, I find that conversations can be much more specific and productive if the participants have a basic understanding of how the tools work. That way, if students hear some kind of outlandish claim—like, that ChatGPT loves them—they can compare the claim to a mental image of how the tool actually works.
I spent the holiday period trying to get a deeper understanding of what’s going on with machine learning and large language models, going all the way back to the 1950s and the origins of artificial neurons. This is a great list of videos, articles, and so on that could help provide a broader understanding of what these technologies are doing and how they work.
