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Learn
One sketch at a time. Start with the picture, read as much as you need, test yourself, then move on.
Open the sketch index →AI literacy without the lecture30 sketches.
30 sketches.
2 minutes a day.
AI that finally makes sense.
Learn the ideas and algorithms behind artificial intelligence through hand-drawn cartoons, plain English, quick quizzes, mind maps, limericks and links worth following.
Free for individuals and classroom teaching. Corporate and organisational use is licensed.
Look.
Laugh.
Learn.
Laugh.
Learn.
30 visual AI sketchesQuick knowledge checksMind maps & limericksNo login needed
Made for curiosity.
Useful in the real world.
AIU is deliberately easy to enter and easy to share. Learn alone, use a sketch to explain an idea to a class, or bring the approach into a workplace where AI needs to make sense to everyone.
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Teach
Use the cartoons to start informed conversations about AI without beginning with equations, hype or fear.
See the design approach →🏢
Bring it to work
License the existing library or commission bespoke cartoons and learning around your own business, AI use cases and vision.
Explore corporate use →AI affects more people than
AI specialists.
AIU is designed for people who need enough understanding to participate confidently — whether they are learning for themselves, explaining AI to others, or helping an organisation decide what to do next.
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New to AI
See the landscape quickly, without starting with mathematics or jargon.
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Explaining AI
Teachers, specialists and communicators can use visual metaphors to make difficult ideas discussable.
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Making AI useful at work
Teams and L&D functions can connect AI concepts to real organisational use cases and decisions.
Motivational designNot cartoons added to a course.
Not cartoons added to a course.
A course designed around motivation.
AIU is informed by John Keller’s ARCS-V model. Each layer of the experience has a job: earn attention, establish relevance, build confidence, reward the effort and help the learner keep going.
A · Attention
Make me look
Cartoons, visual metaphors and humour interrupt the usual wall of AI text.
R · Relevance
Make it mine
Everyday examples — and bespoke corporate use cases — connect ideas to the learner’s world.
C · Confidence
I can get this
Plain language, layered explanations, mind maps and quick checks make progress visible.
S · Satisfaction
Worth my time
The joke, the recognition and the quiz result reward the learner for staying with the idea.
V · Volition
Keep going
Bite-sized sketches and optional deeper links let learners choose their path and continue.
“The cartoon gets you in. The relevance makes you care. Understanding gives you confidence. The joke rewards you for staying.”
That is the design logic behind AIU Academy.
Take a look.
You’ll get the picture.
The academy opens out the cartoons from the book with extra routes into the idea: quizzes, limericks, mind maps, external links and prompts for discussion.
01 · Data hierarchy
08 · Machine learning
15 · AI in your business
30 · AI & biasFor everyone
Essential knowledge should be accessible.
AIU is free for individuals and classroom teaching. If it helps, the simplest way to support it is to buy the book.
For organisations
Make your AI story understandable.
Use the AIU library with teams, or commission cartoons and learning assets built around your own strategy, use cases and vision.
A sketch with a serious pedigree
Three degrees of separation from the birth of AI.
The first draft of A Sketchy Knowledge of AI was signed by Marcus Weldon, then President of Bell Labs.
Bell Labs was home to Claude Shannon, one of the participants in the 1956 Dartmouth workshop that gave artificial intelligence its name.
Marcus Weldon → Bell Labs → Claude Shannon → Dartmouth
Admittedly, the connection is a little sketchy. But then, so are the cartoons.
Two minutes is enough to start.
Pick a sketch. Learn one thing. Tell someone else.