Seriously, ChatGPT was the thing that gave me a foothold into the AI/machine learning world... because it gave me hope that a mere mortal can achieve something reasonable with this tech without a crazy amount of work and educational background.
You just have to do it every day. It's fun!
If you can hold attention span over several days (I can't), work on a project bit-by-bit. Just make sure it uses modern AI stuff, and that you have smart people to talk around with.