1. Foundations6 lessons
  2. Inside the Model5 lessons
  3. How Learning Works5 lessons

Getting started

How this site works

KI einfach verstehen is not a blog and not a link collection, but a path: 16 lessons that build on each other, from a simple spam filter all the way into a language model. This page shows you how to walk that path and which tools accompany you along the way.

The project grew out of one simple question: how does AI actually work? Most explanations either stay on the surface or jump into formulas after two paragraphs. The lessons deliberately sit in between: easy enough to get into, deep enough that you end up understanding why things work the way they do. The full story: why this project exists

One path, 16 lessons

A hiker with a backpack stands on the first of many flat stepping stones that wind up a gentle hill to a glowing lantern on the top.
One stone after another: every lesson prepares the next.

The lessons are grouped into three topics and meant to be read in this order: each one uses terms the previous one introduced. Every lesson is a complete chapter with links into the glossary, not a quick post. The map on the start page always shows you which lessons are readable already and where you currently stand. Every dot on the map is one lesson, and its colour tells you where it stands:

  • readable now
  • in preparation
  • read by you
  • You are here

Your progress stays with you

A hiking backpack with a small notebook tucked into its side pocket; a compass lies on the ground next to it.
Your progress travels with you, but only in your own luggage.

There is no account and no server that remembers you. Which lessons you have read and how your recall moments went is stored by your browser alone, on this device. That is what builds “Your progress” on the start page with your next step. If you clear your browser data or switch devices, the path starts over; the lessons themselves are of course still there. German and English count as the same path.

Explain it more simply

Next to every paragraph, list and excursion of a lesson sits a lightbulb . One click on it — or selecting a passage — opens “Explain it more simply” with three ways to a simpler explanation:

  • Explain more simplyshorter, with the core idea and an everyday comparison
  • With an exampleone concrete example, step by step
  • In more detailevery step on its own, in plain words

The explanation comes from an AI chatbot of your choice in a new tab, with a ready-made question. Until you click, nothing leaves this page.

Recall moment and knowledge check

Three flower pots in a row: a tiny seedling on the left, a small plant in the middle, a tall plant on the right with a watering can pouring water over it.
Recalling is watering: with every recall, what you keep grows.

At the end of every lesson the recall moment waits: a few questions that check what stayed with you. Not as an exam, but because active recall is what makes learning stick. The knowledge check collects all recall moments in one place and suggests when a repetition makes sense — at growing intervals, the more confidently you answer.

After that the lesson asks whether it helped you. If you answer “Not really”, it shows you how to move on, for example with the lightbulb at the passage that stayed unclear.

Lesson actions

At the top of the sidebar and at the end of every lesson you find the lesson actions, a row of small symbols:

  • Copy as Markdownthe whole lesson as text on your clipboard
  • Save as Markdowndownload the text as a file
  • Print this pageor save it as a PDF
  • Share this pagethrough your device or as a copied link
  • View source in the repositorythe lesson exactly as it lives on GitHub

As soon as the text or the link is on your clipboard, the symbol briefly turns into a check mark . The website is open source — if you spot a mistake, you can report or fix it directly on GitHub.

Questions from the community

Five people of different ages sit around a round table with notebooks and coffee cups; one person raises a hand to ask a question, the others turn towards them and listen.
Whoever asks also helps everyone who wondered the same thing.

Something still unclear? Under every lesson you can use “Ask a question about this lesson” to ask a question about exactly that lesson and see what others have already asked. Answers come on the community board, from other learners and from the project. Good questions do not only help you: they also show which passages of a lesson should become clearer.

Dark, larger, bilingual

At the top, in the navigation, you set the site up the way that suits you best. Your browser remembers all three settings, just like your progress.

  • Light or dark themethe moon switches to the dark theme, the sun back to the light one
  • Larger textenlarges all text by one step
  • Switch languagethe same page in German; there, this spot reads “EN”

On narrow screens space at the top runs out: then you find the theme in the menu under “Appearance”.

Start here

Lesson 1 · ≈ 13 min read

Program, Algorithm, Model Compared

Read the first lessonBrowse all topics

The short tour of the reading tools runs once, in the first lesson. Want to see it again? Restart the tour