Curated · quality over quantity

The YouTube videos worth your time

YouTube has world-class AI education buried under an avalanche of hype. This is the shortlist — organized by what you want, not by subscriber count.

Start with these two videos

Concepts · 19 min

But what is a neural network? — 3Blue1Brown

The most beautiful explanation of how AI learns, told entirely with animation. Millions of beginners started here, and for good reason. No math background needed.

Concepts · 60 min

Intro to Large Language Models — Andrej Karpathy

A founding engineer of OpenAI explains, calmly and clearly, what ChatGPT-style models really are. The single best hour you can invest in understanding modern AI.

Channels by goal

Understand the ideas

3Blue1Brown

Visual, intuition-first math and neural networks. Watch the full Neural Networks playlist when you're ready to go deeper.

Understand the ideas

Andrej Karpathy

Long-form deep dives on how LLMs are built and how to use them well. Demanding but unmatched; his "how I use LLMs" material is gold for non-programmers too.

Understand the ideas

StatQuest with Josh Starmer

Goofy songs, crystal-clear explanations of the statistics underneath machine learning. Makes intimidating topics genuinely fun.

Use the tools

Matt Wolfe

Friendly weekly tours of new AI tools and what they're practically good for. Ideal for non-coders who want to stay in the loop.

Use the tools

IBM Technology

Short whiteboard explainers — RAG, agents, fine-tuning — with zero hype and minimal prerequisites. Perfect for "what does that term actually mean?"

Use the tools

DeepLearningAI

Andrew Ng's channel: structured, course-like material from one of the field's great teachers, from beginner literacy to technical depth.

Stay current

Two Minute Papers

Joyful short videos on the latest research breakthroughs. "What a time to be alive!" Watch one with breakfast.

Stay current

AI Explained

Measured, well-sourced analysis of major model releases and what they actually mean — the antidote to hype-cycle coverage.

For future builders

Fireship

Fast, funny "in 100 seconds" tech explainers. When you start wondering how software fits together, start here.

A suggested path: the two starter videos → one Matt Wolfe tools video → IBM Technology whenever a term confuses you → Two Minute Papers or AI Explained weekly to stay current. That's a complete video education.