spreadsheets-are-all-you-need-ai

Cohort 1

Five class sessions Monday through Friday (one hour each)

Cohort 3 - Mon-Fri

Two class sessions on Sat and Sun (2.5 hours each)

Cohort 4 - Sat & Sun

Two class sessions on Tue and Thurs (2.5 hours each)

Cohort 2 - Tue & Thur

December 4-13, 2024

Unlock a personalized learning experience.  Dates and times will be customized to the participant.

1-on-1 Premium Version 

Jan 8—17, 2025 (On-demand)

Decide if this class is right for you. This quick 5-minute class preview video covers <ul><li>The class philosophy </li><li>My background</li><li>Exactly what you’ll learn</li></ul>

A 5-Min Class Sneak Peek

No Excel? No problem! Experience GPT2 (an early precursor to ChatGPT) running entirely in your browser. This project reimagines the "Spreadsheets-are-all-you-need" Excel implementation as an interactive web experience, making LLM architecture more accessible to a wider audience, especially web developers.

Explore real LLM mechanics right in your browser.

How it works in 30 minutes LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, &amp; Llama may seem like magic but thanks to an innovative approach you don't need a Ph.D. to understand how they work. This free class uses a spreadsheet that implements a real LLM (GPT-2) to let you see inside the brain of an LLM as it works. In 30 minutes, you'll walk through the anatomy of an LLM, understand how it works, and even control its mind without prompting!

FREE Lesson! Inside the Brain of an LLM

Unlock the mysteries of AI and LLMs with this interactive Excel spreadsheet. What?Spreadsheets-are-all-you-need implements the GPT2 model from OpenAI (an ancestor of ChatGPT) entirely in an Excel using standard spreadsheet functions. Who?This sheet is perfect for those eager to understand LLM fundamentals: <ul><li>web &amp; traditional developers</li><li>technical managers</li><li>STEM professionals</li></ul> Why?By using a spreadsheet anyone (even non-developers) can explore and play directly with how a “real” LLM works under the hood with minimal abstractions to get in the way.

Go inside a real LLM with Excel

Product managers who drive strategy, development, and launch of products.

Executives and senior leaders who set strategy, lead teams, and drive organizational outcomes.

Broad professional audience — content relevant across many roles and functions.

Applying AI tools and techniques to professional workflows — assign alongside more specific AI topics.

Master AI Concepts with a Real LLM Implemented Entirely in a Spreadsheet. No Complex Math. Just Clarity. 

Ishan Anand

How AI & LLMs Work: A Fast-Track Crash Course for Busy Professionals

Prompt Wrangler

Technology Sales

Developer Relations Engineer

Senior Systems Software Engineer

None

Executive Advisor

Senior Application System Engineer

"Despite being a student in Harvard’s Master’s in Data Science program, I've struggled to understand the concepts that make LLMs so impressive. This class gave me the answers." - Tony "Ishan takes a black box, rips it apart to understandable compartments, and clearly communicates what is going on. Highly recommend." - Joe, CFO ______________________________________________________________________ The current cohort completed recording on January 17th, 2025 but you can still enroll to participate asynchronously: •&nbsp;Get lifetime access to all recorded sessions, including interactive Q&amp;A segments•&nbsp;Connect with peers in our dedicated private Discord community•&nbsp;Master the material through comprehensive quizzes and training resources•&nbsp;Receive direct instructor support via email or Discord whenever you need help•&nbsp;The option to attend a future live cohort for free______________________________________________________________________ Why This Course Stands Out: You already know how vital AI is to your career—it's in every conversation, project, and strategy session. But diving into AI feels daunting with limited time for self-study or complex programming. That’s where this course comes in. Skip the endless prep work and gain an intuitive, hands-on understanding of AI and transformers in just a few hours—without needing an advanced degree. No other course offers such an interactive, fast, and in-depth technical understanding of AI using an actual GPT-2 model, all using an easy-to-learn spreadsheet interface. ______________________________________________________________________ Perfect for Busy STEM Professionals:Whether you're a developer, technical manager, or executive, this course demystifies AI and teaches you exactly how Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-2 work, with no prerequisites beyond a STEM background. It’s ideal for: • Software/Web Developers seeking an easy introduction to machine learning. • Science &amp; Tech Professionals navigating AI transformations in their fields. • Technical Sales/Marketing crafting messaging for AI products. • Product/Project Managers overseeing LLM-powered solutions. • Executives/Leaders guiding AI strategy in their organizations. ______________________________________________________________________ What You’ll Learn:Using a unique spreadsheet implementation of GPT-2 (the predecessor to ChatGPT), we’ll break down each model component with crystal-clear explanations. In just a few sessions, you’ll be able to: • Understand how LLMs work—as quickly as possible. • Explain every key component—tokenization, embeddings, attention, and more. • Gain AI literacy—so you can confidently lead and manage AI-driven teams. • Build a foundation for further AI projects—and even more advanced learning. ______________________________________________________________________ Why Spreadsheets?You don’t need to be a coder or a calculus expert to understand AI—just the right approach. This course uses an innovative, no-code, spreadsheet-based method to teach LLMs. It's fast, interactive, and designed for busy professionals like you. By breaking down complex AI principles into easy-to-follow spreadsheet exercises, you’ll gain a lasting, foundational understanding of how large language models work. This is knowledge you can carry across into any model, any programming language, and any project. ______________________________________________________________________ Hands-On Learning, No Programming Required: By the end of the course, you’ll have a working, detailed understanding of how transformers power LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Llama. Plus, you'll have a spreadsheet tool you can explore and tweak to deepen your understanding further. ______________________________________________________________________ See it for Yourself: Still unsure? Watch the FREE lightning lesson:"Inside the Brain of an LLM: How it Works in 30 Minutes" to see how accessible AI learning can be: https://maven.com/p/eeea6f/inside-the-brain-of-an-llm-how-it-works-in-30-minutes ______________________________________________________________________ Join the Community of Learners: • “I could’ve read 20 papers on this and not gotten nearly the understanding I got from this hands-on course.”— Class Participant from Adobe • “Highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to build a foundation in LLMs. Ishan’s interactive approach makes complex concepts incredibly clear.”— Matt, Business Intelligence Analyst ______________________________________________________________________ Practical Details: • Course Access: All sessions are recorded and available to stream after the course concludes, so you’ll never miss a thing.• Reimbursement: Your company may cover this course if you're building or transitioning into AI at work. ______________________________________________________________________ New for this cohort! We've dropped the requirement for Excel. We have a browser based alternative. Some exercises may use Google Sheets and/or Python.

Skip the mountains of prep work and learn how AI works in just a few hours

Course syllabus

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

Weekly projects

Course schedule

Executives, engineering managers, and product managers leading and coordinating technical AI teams leveraging LLMs

Developers without formal training in machine learning that want to quickly understand the LLM technology in their projects

A gentle introduction to LLMs for professionals pivoting their career to AI from traditional software engineering or other STEM fields

Anyone who can read a spreadsheet that is motivated and deeply interested in how the next wave of computing works

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

This course breaks down complex AI concepts into easy-to-follow steps using Excel, making it accessible for anyone with a STEM background.

Understand how LLMs work as quickly as possible

Precisely understand in detail the architecture and function of the GPT2 model, including tokenization, embeddings, attention, multi-layer perceptron, and layernorm.

Recognize and explain every component of an LLM

You'll gain a solid understanding of how LLMs function, enabling you to confidently engage with engineers and technical stakeholders.

AI Literacy for managing technical teams

Build a foundation that equips you with the essential knowledge to explore advanced AI topics, undertake AI projects, or pursue further coursework.

Learn directly from spreadsheets-are-all-you-need-ai

spreadsheets-are-all-you-need-ai

Courses

How AI & LLMs Work: A Fast-Track Crash Course for Busy Professionals

Lightning Lessons

Inside the AI brain of an LLM: How it Works in 30 Minutes

Inside the brain of an LLM: How it Works in 30 Minutes

Resources

A 5-Min Class Sneak Peek

FREE Lesson! Inside the Brain of an LLM

Go inside a real LLM with Excel

Explore real LLM mechanics right in your browser.