On Investing In People Over Ideas or Apps with AI YouTuber Louis Bouchard

Hey Hackers! I’m Louis and I’m an AI YouTuber known as What’s AI, and a research scientist at designstripe.

First of all, a huge thank you to the HackerNoon community and staff for nominating me for a 2021 Noonies award! I’ve been nominated in the following categories please do check out these award pages and vote:

1. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - computer-vision

   
   

2. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - data-science

   
   

3. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - deep-learning

   
   

4. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - facebook

   
   

5. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - game-development

   
   

6. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - google

   
   

7. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - iPhone

   
   

8. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - ml

As someone in the AI industry closely following the research, I believe it is the most exciting technology of the present time because it is involved in all industries with no exception. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on AI and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.

1. What do you do and why do you do it?

I am focusing on making AI accessible. I try to share and explain artificial intelligence terms and news the best way I can for everyone. My goal is to demystify the AI “black box” for everyone and sensitize people about the risks of using it.

2. Tell us more about the things you create / write / manage / build!

Why did I make a youtube channel and blog? Because I love to learn and share what I learn. I do this by writing articles and making videos and other interesting projects I am working on, all shared here. I also wanted to stay up-to-date with everything in AI, and to me, there was no better way than explaining them. This lead me to a year of weekly videos explaining new research in the field, a guide on learning AI to answer most questions I receive, a community on discord called Learn AI Together with over 19’000 members, and many more interesting projects!

3. How did you end up on your current career path? Do you like it?

I’ve never known what to do with my life and ended up always choosing “the path that opened most doors for my future”. This lead me to systems engineering and finally found out about AI around the end of my degree in 2018-2019. I decided to pursue a master’s degree in AI-computer vision research, and I may continue with a Ph.D. sometime in the future. I am still thinking about it.

In the meantime, I am working as a research scientist, and I love it. I always exchange with others to learn and improve what we are working on, and I love the theory and maths behind AI, which helps a lot in this field, working doesn’t feel like working at all, and this comes from someone that hated his previous jobs and went through them painfully. If you feel lost, just keep going and trying new things, do not give up. You will certainly find something that you enjoy doing and that you can make money out of. I discovered my passion at 23 years old, and there’s no shame even if you are older than that. Working in what you love is worth the time invested in its research.

4. What tech are you most excited or passionate about right now and why?

I am most passionate about computer vision-related topics, but anything that involves AI interests me. I am also a big fan of ethics, psychology, and philosophy, which all come together in this field. AI, in general, is amazing. I love how it is literally applied mathematics, something that any young student doesn’t believe exists, and ask their teacher each year.

5. What tech are you most worried about right now and why?

I am not a futurologist, and I am a poor guesser. I can only say that I have no idea what will happen and thus what could be worrisome other than AI being used ethically. I only know that humans will always work to improve technology and solve problems that we often create. Hardware will improve, and the software will follow. The main thing is the government and law have difficulty keeping up with the new applications, which is surely the main thing to worry about when it comes to any new technologies.

6. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why?

This is a very hard question as I believe in investing in people rather than ideas or applications. Thus, I would invest it in myself. Buying better equipment for my research and work, hiring video editors, following writing courses, etc. Anything that could make my content better and of higher quality. I would also hire a personal chef to save some time and allow me to work and enjoy more free time!

7. What are you currently learning?

I am always learning, especially regarding AI. I try to stay up to date with most applications of AI but also with the architectures and current trends on what is used as my main goal as a researcher is to improve our understanding of deep nets and use this knowledge to improve them in return.

I am also a big audiobook consumer always reading books about self-improvement, AI, psychology, philosophy, etc. I just love to think and learn about any subject. Right now I am reading Creativity Inc by Ed Catmul, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, and it is extremely interesting!

8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone?

One piece of advice? Do the best you can and don't stress too much about it; you can't do more anyways! Do not burn yourself out trying to be perfect at everything and every time. Mistakes are completely normal, and the only way to improve is to make them. How else can you get better if you always succeed? Skills are not fixed, and you can always improve! I would recommend reading about the growth mindset, which can come incredibly handy in your professional and personal life!

9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I’ve ever received is surely related to the question above. I’ve always been in the growth mindset, where I needed to improve and I knew it was possible. The only thing is that I’m more of a pessimist, in the sense that I want to improve but I rarely recognize achievements. The book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” helped me a lot and contains some of the best advice I ever had!

About HackerNoon’s 2021 Noonie Awards

The annual Noonie Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today. Please be sure to check out our award categories, nominate, and vote for the people and companies who you think are making the biggest impact on the tech industry today.

The 2021 Noonies are sponsored by: bybit, Dottech Domains, and Avast. Thank you so much to these sponsors who are helping us celebrate the accomplishments of all our nominees!