AI can be maddening. It’s infinitely complex but also remarkably simple. It’s technical and opaque but also deeply humanistic. It’s objective and robotically rational yet it leans into our hopes, fears and dreams. That makes it easy to get lost. Once you’re lost, you either check out or start following breadcrumbs that lead nowhere.
The thing about AI is that it’s easy to want to learn about it but it’s such an immature field that a lot of the content is wrong, misleading or not generated in your interest. You can end up with a lot of opinions but not a lot of knowledge. Once you start walking down the wrong path your algorithms end up littered with garbage and hucksters.
To that end I’ve spent a lot of time screening subject matter experts and wanted to share the five that I’ve enjoyed learning from the most. I’ve also shared their work so you can get a feel for each. In no particular order they are:
Michael Wooldridge - I read his book A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence and benefitted from it greatly. He’s not a prolific poster but when he talks things make sense. He’s the professor of Computer Science at Oxford and has a list of awards and citations that would make Yann LeCun envious. Prof. Wooldridge is highly skeptical of much of the AI-inspired hysteria and offers a sober, understandable counterpoint to the hype cycle. Unlike so many others he doesn’t maintain his own social properties but he’s worth knowing about and searching on YouTube.
El from House of El - Imagine someone with a real computer science background, a deep skeptic’s streak and enough charisma to make you forget you’re learning something. I stumbled on her feed randomly and really love her perspective. She doesn’t drown you in tech. Instead she explores the dysfunctions of the category on topics ranging from AI Psychosis to AI Surveillance. You can follow her on YouTube or sign up for her email.
Alberto Romero - He writes the Substack The Algorithmic Bridge and I look forward to his weekly posts. His topics have a broad range but they also always have a good point. One of my favorites was the post he wrote about How America Turned Against AI.
Andrew Ng from DeepLearning.ai and The Batch. I wrote a post on him a while back. He’s as expert on AI as anyone, promotes the idea of free education on the topic and also has the most balanced and fair take of anyone I’ve watched. You’ll get a kick out of his mild manner and get access to a nice blend of tech and topical discussions.
Mo Bitar is one of my favorite characters in the play that is this moment in technology history. He’s super sarcastic, has a lot of hot takes and answers that question of “is it just me? Or is some of this a little overdone?” You’re not alone. Bitar is a career developer who doesn’t suffer tech bros lightly. He looks sort of like Rasputin to boot. Not a HUGE fan of the fact he recently set up a membership tier on YouTube but a guys gotta eat.
Honorable Mention - Marcellina from It’s Marcellina. I originally had her on this list but then remembered I needed to include Alberto Romero so I made room for him given how Marcelina is still sort of building up her content.
Marcellina keeps it short and technical without making you feel like you need a CS degree to follow along. She's young enough that you might scroll past her, which would be your loss. Her background is data science, so you'll pick up useful context beyond AI alone.
Start with whoever sounds most like your speed. Follow one, then another. The goal isn’t more content in your feed, it’s actually knowing what you’re talking about.
If you have your own favorites please share it in the comments below.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.