Build Your First AI Chat App (Beginner Workshop)

Build your first AI chat app with the OpenAI API. Learn how ChatGPT works in this hands-on beginner workshop. (109)
About this Event

Ever wondered how apps like ChatGPT actually work?

In this hands-on beginner workshop, you'll build your own AI-powered chat application from scratch using the OpenAI API.

No backend, databases, or complex setup required. We'll keep things simple so you can focus on understanding the fundamentals.

By the end of the session, you'll have a working AI chat application running on your own computer and a solid understanding of how modern AI applications communicate with large language models.

What we'll cover

• What Large Language Models (LLMs) are and how they work
• How AI chat applications communicate with an API
• Understanding prompts, messages, tokens, and model responses
• Building a simple chat interface
• Connecting your application to the OpenAI API
• Displaying AI responses in your app
• Improving the user experience with features like conversation history and loading indicators
• Why this approach isn't production-ready—and what you'd change for a real-world application

Who is this for?

This workshop is ideal for:

• Beginner developers
• Students
• Curious makers and hobbyists
• Anyone interested in learning how AI applications are built

Some basic familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, or another programming language will be helpful, but you don't need any prior experience with AI.

What you'll build

You'll leave with your own working AI chat application that you can continue experimenting with after the workshop.

Rather than spending hours configuring servers or cloud services, we'll focus on getting something working quickly so you can understand the core concepts behind AI-powered applications.

What to bring

• A laptop
• Your preferred code editor (such as VS Code)
• An OpenAI API key (instructions will be provided before the workshop)

About the workshop

This is a practical, hands-on coding session. We'll build the application together, explain each step along the way, and finish with a discussion about how you'd evolve the project into a secure, production-ready application.

Whether you're AI-curious or looking to build your first AI-powered app, you'll walk away with both a working project and the confidence to keep building.