The Modern AI Stack
Move beyond basic prompt engineering to understand how cutting-edge AI systems actually operate. Explore the architectural shifts powering retrieval, tool-calling agents, inference scaling, and multi-step autonomy.
Like Duolingo, but for The Modern AI Stack. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Connecting Models to Data and Tools and Reasoning and Autonomous Systems. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Modern AI Stack
- RAG supplies dynamic, rapidly updating factual knowledge directly into the prompt at runtime
- Fine-tuning adapts internal parameters to reliably match specialized output formats and voice
- Retraining weights to keep up with volatile data is costly and leads to outdated responses
- Transformer attention mechanisms exhibit a 'lost in the middle' effect across long prompts
- Models recall facts placed near the very beginning or end of large contexts much more reliably
- Expanding context windows eliminates chunking boundaries but still suffers retrieval drops
- Dense vector embeddings group concepts by meaning and often smooth over exact alphanumeric tokens
- Sparse keyword search excels at matching precise identifiers like SKUs, error codes, and symbols
- Hybrid search combines vector similarity with BM25 keyword matching to cover both nuances
- Neural network weights compress and generalize information into distributed statistical patterns
- Parametric knowledge lacks discrete storage, causing models to invent plausible details when unsure
- Retrieval quality must be evaluated separately from final generation quality to isolate bugs
- Context recall tests whether the search step fetched all necessary source information
- Faithfulness measures whether the final answer stays strictly grounded in retrieved chunks
- RAG grounds answers in retrieved chunks that provide verifiable citations for auditability
- LLMs emit structured text matching an API schema rather than executing tools directly.
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Modern AI Stack the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What is fine-tuning best at teaching an AI model?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
How to learn The Modern AI Stack, step by step
Go in order. 12 short levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
Connecting Models to Data and Tools
- Grounding Models: RAG vs. Fine-Tuning
- Function Calling and Structured Outputs
- 2
Reasoning and Autonomous Systems
- Test-Time Compute and Reasoning Models
- Agentic Workflows and Orchestration
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about The Modern AI Stack
How do I learn The Modern AI Stack?
Go in order: start with Connecting Models to Data and Tools, then Reasoning and Autonomous Systems. On Tomo that's 12 short levels, about 24 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for The Modern AI Stack?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. The Modern AI Stack is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is The Modern AI Stack free?
Yes. The Modern AI Stack is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn The Modern AI Stack?
12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start The Modern AI Stack?
No. It's pitched at an intermediate level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
The Modern AI Stack is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Modern AI Stack today.
Download Tomo, search The Modern AI Stack, and play your first lesson in under a minute.