Generative AI for Beginners - Java Edition

Time Commitment: The entire workshop can be completed online without local setup. The environment setup takes 2 minutes, with exploring the samples requiring 1-3 hours depending on exploration depth.

Quick Start

1. Fork this repository to your GitHub account
2. Click Code → Codespaces tab → ... → New with options...
3. Use the defaults – this will select the Development container created for this course
4. Click Create codespace
5. Wait ~2 minutes for the environment to be ready
6. Jump straight to Chapter 2: Provision Azure AI Foundry

Multi-Language Support

Supported via GitHub Action (Automated & Always Up-to-Date)

Arabic | Bengali | Bulgarian | Burmese (Myanmar) | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong) | Chinese (Traditional, Macau) | Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) | Croatian | Czech | Danish | Dutch | Estonian | Finnish | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Kannada | Khmer | Korean | Lithuanian | Malay | Malayalam | Marathi | Nepali | Nigerian Pidgin | Norwegian | Persian (Farsi) | Polish | Portuguese (Brazil) | Portuguese (Portugal) | Punjabi (Gurmukhi) | Romanian | Russian | Serbian (Cyrillic) | Slovak | Slovenian | Spanish | Swahili | Swedish | Tagalog (Filipino) | Tamil | Telugu | Thai | Turkish | Ukrainian | Urdu | Vietnamese

Prefer to Clone Locally?

This repository includes 50+ language translations which significantly increases the download size. To clone without translations, use sparse checkout:

Bash / macOS / Linux:

git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/microsoft/Generative-AI-for-beginners-java.git
cd Generative-AI-for-beginners-java
git sparse-checkout set --no-cone '/*' '!translations' '!translated_images'

CMD (Windows):

git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/microsoft/Generative-AI-for-beginners-java.git
cd Generative-AI-for-beginners-java
git sparse-checkout set --no-cone "/*" "!translations" "!translated_images"

This gives you everything you need to complete the course with a much faster download.

Course Structure & Learning Path

Chapter 1: Introduction to Generative AI

• Core Concepts: Understanding Large Language Models, tokens, embeddings, and AI capabilities
• Java AI Ecosystem: Overview of Spring AI and OpenAI SDKs
• Model Context Protocol: Introduction to MCP and its role in AI agent communication
• Practical Applications: Real-world scenarios including chatbots and content generation
• → Start Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Development Environment Setup

• Azure AI Foundry: Provision model deployments as code with Bicep and the Azure Developer CLI (azd)
• Spring Boot + Spring AI: Best practices for enterprise AI application development
• Keyless Authentication: Connect securely with Microsoft Entra ID — no API keys to manage
• Development Tools: Docker containers, VS Code, and GitHub Codespaces configuration
• → Start Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Core Generative AI Techniques

• Prompt Engineering: Techniques for optimal AI model responses
• Embeddings & Vector Operations: Implement semantic search and similarity matching
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Combine AI with your own data sources
• Function Calling: Extend AI capabilities with custom tools and plugins
• → Start Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Practical Applications & Projects

• Pet Story Generator (petstory/): Creative content generation with Azure AI Foundry
• Foundry Local Demo (foundrylocal/): Local AI model integration with OpenAI Java SDK
• MCP Calculator Service (calculator/): Basic Model Context Protocol implementation with Spring AI
• → Start Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Responsible AI Development

• Azure AI Foundry Content Safety: Test built-in content filtering and safety mechanisms (hard blocks and soft refusals)
• Responsible AI Demo: Hands-on example showing how modern AI safety systems work in practice
• Best Practices: Essential guidelines for ethical AI development and deployment
• → Start Chapter 5

Additional Resources

LangChain

Azure / Edge / MCP / Agents

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Generative AI Series

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Core Learning

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Copilot Series

Getting Help

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