Two free online Artificial Intelligence programming courses are starting in February 2012. They are Building A Search Engine and Programming A Robotic Car. They are college level courses taught by college professors. They give a certificate of completion but no college credit. There are no prerequisites. The first requires no programming experience. For the second, some experience will be helpful. Both will use Python.
Check out their syllabi and sign up at udacity.com
This is pretty cool! :mrgreen:
I attempted to use Python once but it was waaay too long-winded (although I was 11 so my concentration was probably pretty short 
).