Voices Of AI: 5 People You Should Know | MediaPost Communications - AI Insider

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"Often the best way to learn about a new field -- especially one that is both complex and noisy, like AI -- is to watch people who are truly proficient at it. What do they talk about? What do they spend their time working on, and what things do they ignore? What kind of music do they listen to?" says Josh Engroff, CEO Marzipan, LLC.

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Someone working in marketing is not going to learn a lot about AI from another person working in marketing, for the simple reason that most marketers don’t understand the fundamentals of AI. They know the marketing-speak version of AI, which looks a lot like bullshit bingo. The term “AI” is just another entrant in the lexicon of agency word porn, a sexy-shiny thing to pull out during new-business pitches and client dinners, but ultimately signifying little.

To whom, then, should an autodidact turn in order to better understand where AI is really headed, and why industry pundits insist on saying ridiculous things like “artificial intelligence is eating the world”?

Below are five people I have found particularly insightful on topics ranging from neural networks, to self-driving cars, social robotics, natural language processing and AI startup investing. I highly recommend paying close attention to all of them this year.

(Note: at five, this list is necessarily — even hilariously — incomplete; my goal is to be concise and useful, not comprehensive. Plus, I have a thing for prime numbers).
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Source: MediaPost Communications