Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although I myself am not related to the industry or academia pertaining to AI, I have heard many people speak highly of the zero to hero course by Andrej Karpathy: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAqhIrjkxbuWI23v9cThsA9Gv... I myself loved it and learned a lot, but YMMV
Would you mind sharing, what level of programming & mathematical background do I need? I know basic python (read python for data analysis) & currently half way through elements of statistical learning. What else do I need to learn?
If you're able to make it that far on ESL, mathematical background certainly won't hold you back when learning anything "neural networks" related. Specially not a spelled-out practical intro.
> I know basic python (read python for data analysis)
You may want to get more comfortable with programming in general (outside of the data analysis realm), but you can learn everything you're missing while watching Karpathy's series (and referencing the python docs).