How hard is it to build an AI?

It depends on your scope. If you're trying to replicate something like ChatGPT, you're looking at massive infrastructure, expert-level research, and millions of dollars. But if your goal is to build a more focused AI system, that answers customer support questions or classifies emails—it’s much more manageable. With the right tools, data, and a clear goal, even a small team can make real progress. The hard part is less about building the model and more about getting the data, tuning it well, and making sure it works in real-world conditions.

How do you create AI like ChatGPT?

Creating something like ChatGPT isn’t just about writing code. It's about training a large language model (LLM) on huge volumes of data using specialised hardware like GPUs or TPUs, often for weeks at a time. It also requires a team of engineers, data scientists, and infrastructure experts. Most companies don’t build these models from scratch; they fine-tune or integrate models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Meta. That route is far more practical—and still powerful for many applications.

How do you build an AI chatbot from scratch?

Start by defining what your chatbot needs to do: answer FAQs, handle bookings, process forms, etc. Then choose a framework—open-source options like Rasa or Botpress can give you a good starting point. You’ll also need training data: conversations, intents, and responses. If you want your bot to understand natural language well, you can plug in existing language models via APIs rather than building one yourself. Don’t forget to test it with real users—it’s often the best way to improve how the bot responds and behaves.

Can I create an AI for free?

It is possible to build a simple AI with open-source tools like Python, Scikit-learn, Hugging Face Transformers, or even basic models in Google Colab. But “free” usually comes with limits: reduced compute power, data constraints, and time investments. For anything more advanced or reliable, you’ll likely end up paying for better infrastructure, APIs, or expert help. Still, if you're just experimenting or learning, there's plenty you can do without spending a cent.