[briga]

The online Stanford courses--CS224, CS229, CS231--are an excellent introduction into modern AI. CS231 with Andrej Karpathy in particular was a game-changer for me. It has three very thorough and well-designed assignments that will have you implement many of the basic algorithms discussed in the course.

The pre-requisite linear algebra for these subjects can be learned through Gilbert Strang's MIT course. A basic grounding in statistics and probability theory, along with calculus will also help.