When you hear the word “AI,” do you think it sounds difficult or that you need a special computer?

Actually, with Google Colab, you can try AI for free using just your smartphone! 📱✨

This time, I tried one of the most popular beginner experiments in machine learning: handwritten digit recognition.

Having AI guess the numbers you write by hand—sounds exciting, doesn’t it? 😊

To let the AI read numbers, I first needed to create images of digits myself.

At first, I wondered “How should I do this?”—but it turned out to be super easy with an app.

I used an illustration app called ibisPaintX, and it only took three steps:

1. Open ibisPaintX.

2. Tap the ＋ icon to create a new canvas.

3. Write a digit in white on a black background, then save.

And that’s it—my handwritten digit image was ready!

Next, I ran AI on Google Colab.

Since Gemini helped me prepare the Python code, all I really had to do was press the Run button.

Colab quickly trained the AI using the famous MNIST handwritten digit dataset, which only took a few minutes.

Then, I uploaded my own handwritten digit...

And the result?

The AI responded: “This is a 7!” 🎉

It was spot on!

Seeing AI recognize a digit I wrote on my phone was such a thrilling moment. ✨

This time, I experienced handwritten digit recognition with AI—using only my smartphone.

Almost no coding required

Just draw digits with an app

Free to use with Google Colab

That’s all it takes to try out the kind of machine learning you usually only see in books.

If you think “AI is too difficult,” I encourage you to give it a try!

Watching your own handwriting get recognized by AI is way more exciting than you’d expect.

My First Machine Learning on a Smartphone