The new video courses assume the developer already has a basic standard of Python skills. If you don’t, I’m afraid you’ll need to brush up on those first. Fortunately, Microsoft released a 44-part “Python for Beginners” series last autumn (or “fall” for our American friends.)

For those with the Python skills, or if you’ve just consumed all 44-parts of Microsoft’s course in record time, the new courses are around three hours each. 

The first course, More Python for Beginners, features 20 videos and covers areas such as lambdas, inheritance, and asynchronous operations.

The second course, Even More Python for Beginners: Data Tools, consists of 31 videos and really dives into using Python for machine learning and data science. Students are taught how to use popular Python libraries for the aforementioned topics; along with using the Jupyter Notebooks browser-based development environment.

Each of the courses are still led by Christopher Harrison, senior program manager at Microsoft, and Susan Ibach, business development manager from Microsoft AI Gaming. 

“While we’re not going to get into conversations about choosing algorithms or building models, we are going to introduce what you’ll use when you begin the journey. We’ll highlight Jupyter Notebooks, the favorite tool of data scientists,” Harrison and Ibach wrote in a blog. 

As of writing, the first part in Microsoft’s Python course series has been viewed over 1.75 million times.

The course’s popularity is of little surprise given the huge interest in Python as AI talent becomes more in-demand; with six-figure salaries not unheard of. In last year’s GitHub Octoverse report, Python overtook Java to become the second most popular language on the world’s largest repository host.

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In a tweet, Musk wrote: “Tesla will hold a super fun AI party/hackathon at my house with the Tesla AI/autopilot team in about four weeks. Invitations going out soon.”

The hackathon will focus on the AI behind Tesla’s problematic AutoPilot feature which has been reported to accelerate erratically. Tesla has denied the claims but the hackathon suggests the company at least wants to make AutoPilot more robust.

Ahead of the hackathon announcement, Musk called for developers to join Tesla’s AI team which, he says, reports directly to him.

Talking up the opportunity, Musk highlighted that Tesla will soon have over a million connected vehicles worldwide. Every Tesla is fitted with the sensors and computing power needed for full self-driving which “is orders of magnitude more than everyone else combined”.

Musk says that an individual’s educational background is irrelevant. However, before you get too excited you can just waltz into Tesla, you will be required to pass a “hardcore coding test”.

Python is used “for rapid iteration” at Tesla to build neural networks before the code is converted into “C++/C/raw metal driver code” for the speed required for such critical tasks as piloting a vehicle.

As part of that need for speed, Tesla is also taking on the challenge of building its own AI chips. Musk says Tesla is seeking world-class chip designers to join the company’s teams based in Palo Alto and Austin.

Musk has been vocal about his fears of AI – calling it a potentially existential threat if left unchecked. However, he is also well aware of its opportunities (if that’s of any surprise given how it’s helping to inflate his and investors’ wallets).

“My actions, not just words, show how critically I view (benign) AI,” Musk wrote.

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