Designed for students with little to no prior programming experience to build a solid foundation in Python programming and the problem-solving skills essential for working with AI. Students will learn variables, data types, conditionals, loops, functions, input/output, and basics of object-oriented programming. Practical skills include setting up a development environment, using Jupyter notebooks, and version control with Git. Students will actively write, analyze, test, and debug code in and out of class. Beyond coding, students will learn to state problems clearly, break them into parts, track down mistakes, and evaluate AI-generated solutions. This is the first course in a two-course sequence introducing students to important topics in programming, specifically tailored for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.