The Career Path to Artificial Intelligence

                                                

 By Uday Girish Maradana

AI is the trending topic now a days everywhere.
Some question what is it like they never heard about it?
Some ask is it useful to learn that?
Some ask how to start learning that technology?


There are hundreds of answers to these questions.
Some read articles related to will it take over the human opportunities or will it create?
There is no definite answer to this question, but every technology has both positive and negative sides and effects on the industry. Talking about the industry, giants like Google,Microsoft, Facebook etc have already excelled and working on some core research topics related to this field.

What exactly is Artificial Intelligence?

Wiki says:
Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving".

How to start a career related to AI field ?

Artificial intelligence is a vast field which touches nearly the roots of Robotics, Computer Science etc. So, We humans are not limited in memory but we are not capable to hold that memory every time. So, to become a master in AI, it may take years to decades or more than that.AI involves working on topics like Machine learning , Artificial Neural Networks, Reinforcement learning etc.
Many people might question is it necessary to learn?

 These are the poll results released by CBS in 2016 which was conducted by them.

                                    Different Fields of Artificial Intelligence

Source : https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-vanity-fair-poll-artificial-intelligence/

So I think AI is important.

So what are the career opportunities?

Yeah, AI have great opportunities everywhere but you have to work somehow to find some position relative to your work as this can be used in multiple fields.
Some of them are Machine learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing and Self Driving cars,Automation in Industries etc. are different positions you can find this as the required skill of the job posting. Especially Self driving cars are in utmost need of the people who are working in this sector.
There are big companies working in this field ranging from well established firms to startups. Below image gives a clear idea on opportunities related to AI.

            

Skill Set
Basic Skills:
1. Linear Algebra,
2. Differential Calculus,
3. Probability,
4. Python or C++ or Java.

Now AI can be programmed in different languages due to the increase in the developer count. Olden days it was coded in form of LISP.

Where to start?

Obviously, google it you will get many sources.


But some of my suggestions are
1. Take Online MOOC courses preferably from Coursera, edx as most of the coursers in them are free to audit. Famous MOOC on this technology is a course by Andrew Ng and Deep Learning.ai.

           

2. Follow some persons who are working  on this technology and get updates. Many sources are there includes Linkedin, Github etc.

                                                               
3. Try to write your own code and brush up your concepts.

                                             
4. Work on some application or problem.
                                         
5. There are lot many books on this subject.
Some of them are:
Deep learning by Ian GoodFellow et.al.
Deep Learning by Francois Chollet
Artificial Intelligence by Russell Norvig
AI by Nils J Nilsson
Practical Programming books related to AI by Packt Publishing etc.