AI Research Roadmap

Math

  1. Pre-Calculus
    1. OpenStax OpenStax | Free Textbooks Online with No Catch
    2. Khan Academy Precalculus
  2. Calculus
    1. Paul's Online Notes Calc I
    2. MIT OpenCourseWare Single Variable Calculus | Mathematics | MIT OpenCourseWare
    3. 3Blue1Brown Essence of calculus
    4. 3Blue1Brown
  3. Statistics
    1. Statistics 110: Probability | Statistics 110: Probability
  4. Linear Algebra
    1. MIT OpenCourseWare Linear Algebra | Mathematics | MIT OpenCourseWare
    2. 3Blue1Brown Essence of linear algebra
    3. 3Blue1Brown
    4. Linear Algebra Done Right (Sheldon Axler)

Machine Learning

  1. ML Foundations
    1. Practical Deep Learning for Coders Practical Deep Learning for Coders - Part 2 overview
    2. Practical Deep Learning for Coders Practical Deep Learning for Coders - Practical Deep Learning
    3. Andrew Ng: Coursera Machine Learning
    4. Andrew Ng: Coursera Deep Learning
  2. LLMs from Scratch
    1. Neural Networks: Zero To Hero
    2. nanoGPT
  3. Reading Real Model Code
    1. HuggingFace transformers
  4. Fine-tuning + RL
    1. Unsloth https://github.com/unslothai/notebooks
  5. Inference
    1. SGLang Documentation Welcome to SGLang - SGLang Documentation
  6. GPU Kernels
    1. Tutorials — Triton documentation
  7. Understanding Deep Learning
    1. Understanding Deep Learning by Simon J.D. Prince
  8. Deep Learning for Computer Vision
    1. CS231n Deep Learning for Computer Vision
  9. Gradient Practice
    1. CS231n course notes: Backpropagation and Optimization
    2. CS231n Assignments 1–2 (derive gradients by hand in NumPy)

Projects

  1. Kaggle
    1. Kaggle Kaggle: The World’s AI Proving Ground
  2. Reimplementing a Paper
  3. Speedruns?
  4. Blog Posts
  5. Papers

Additional Resources

  1. ARENA
    1. Prerequisites for ARENA 2.0
    2. ARENA - AI Safety Curriculum
    3. ARENA ARENA – AI Safety Education
    4. How to work through the ARENA program on your own — LessWrong
  2. BlueDot Impact
    1. BlueDot Impact Online AI safety courses and project sprints
    2. BlueDot Impact AI Alignment
    3. BlueDot Impact Frontier AI Governance Course | BlueDot Impact
  3. 80,000 Hours
    1. The 80,000 Hours team AI safety syllabus | 80,000 Hours
  4. Miscellaneous
    1. AI Safety Foundation The AI Safety Foundation
    2. Effective Altruism Forum MATS Autumn 2026 Fellowship - Apply by June 7th
    3. RationalNarrator The "AI Safety Fundamentals" courses are great!
    4. MATS Program MATS Research
    5. Gauntlet AI Gauntlet AI - Your Fastest Path to Become AI-First
    6. Programs | Astra Fellowship
    7. Anthropic Fellows Program for AI safety research
    8. www.quora.com Greg Brockman comment on deep learning preparation
    9. Dive into Deep Learning — Dive into Deep Learning 1.0.3 documentation