From parsing astronomical data, to reshaping the user experience, to powering facial recognition software—AI is changing the twenty-first-century technological landscape. So it makes sense that if you’re interested in a career in AI, you’ll want to stay current with the movers and shakers in the field.
One of the best ways to do this is to keep up with the top AI influencers, whether they’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Fortunately, we’ve done all the legwork for you, and assembled this list of the top ten AI influencers in 2020 that you should be following:
1. Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro
Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro is one of the big names in artificial intelligence, and is one of the top AI influencers on LinkedIn. His wide-ranging expertise includes big data, machine learning, business analytics, and just about every aspect of AI.
A well-known data scientist, Piatetsky-Shapiro co-founded the KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining) conferences. These were a series of influential AI workshops held in the late 80s and early 90s.
Piatetsky-Shapiro is also co-founder of the Knowledge Discovery Nuggets (KDnuggets), which began as a newsletter, but evolved into an AI resource dedicated to providing short “nuggets” of info on data science.
2. Lil Miquela
In keeping with the overall uncanniness of AI, we present you with the only influencer on this list that is…well, not human.
Lil Miquela is perhaps one of the best-known AI influencers on Instagram. “She” is, in fact, the creation of a California-based robotics and AI company known as Brud.
Also known as a “virtual influencer,” Lil Miquela boasts engagement levels that equal that of human influencers, and has even received a job as an arts editor at the lifestyle magazine Dazed. Will the wonders never cease?
3. Spiros Margaris
Spiros Margaris is a futurist and venture capitalist, and he is the founder of Margaris Ventures.
Add to that the fact that Onalytica ranked Margaris as the top influencer in FinTech (“financial technology”), AI, and Blockchain. He is regularly among the top AI influencers on Twitter, and he has also contributed important papers and TED talks on the subject.
4. Andrew Ng
Andrew Ng has done important work in computer science and artificial intelligence. As a co-founder of Coursera, he is reckoned among the early pioneers of online learning.
Andrew Ng is also one of the co-founders of Google Brain, and served as Chief Scientist at Baidu, the Chinese tech and AI giant. So it’s pretty safe to say that he’s one of the major AI influencers.
5. Kate Crawford
Another of the top AI influencers in 2020, Kate Crawford is definitely one to follow.
Crawford’s special interest is in the social impacts of AI and data technology. This means her concerns are largely with how our advancing AI systems intersect with human society, sometimes positively, and sometimes negatively.
Kate Crawford is co-founder of the AI Now Research Institute, which is a research group aimed at studying the social implications of AI.
6. Fei-Fei Li
Fei-Fei Li, currently of Stanford University, is one of the top names in AI research. She was formerly chief scientist at Google Cloud, but her move to Stanford has seen her involvement in other research projects.
She is now the co-director of the Stanford Human-Centered AI (HAI) Institute, which seeks to place the human element at the heart of the evolution of AI. This is an important research project that embraces many different disciplines at the university.
7. Kathleen Walch
Kathleen Walch is committed to educating a wide audience about artificial intelligence and its possibilities.
She also happens to be an expert in AI and machine learning, and is the founder and principal analyst of Cognilytica, an artificial intelligence research firm. Consider that she’s also the co-host of the AI Today podcast, and an SXSW Innovation Awards judge, and it’s easy to see why Kathleen Walch possesses such wide-ranging influence.
8. Martin Ford
Martin Ford is a noted futurist, and is a New York Times bestselling author. Ford’s wheelhouse is principally the future of work, and how AI technologies will affect society at large.
To this end, he’s penned a number of books that explore AI and its many current and potential impacts on the economy and how human labor will be forced to adapt.
9. Allie K. Miller
Forbes AI Innovator of the Year. US Head of AI Growth, Startups & VC @Amazon. Nat’l AAAS Ambassador.
She’s been heavily involved in the development of significant aspects of AI, such as in computer vision and data analysis. Her interests now are focused on how to create a business in the brave new world of artificial intelligence.
10. Shakir Mohamed
Shakir Mohamed is one of the chief AI influencers in the UK. His interests are focused on machine learning and its applications in society, which is one of the major areas in AI research.
Mohamed is a senior research scientist at DeepMind in London, a cutting-edge AI research institute. He’s also head of the non-profit Deep Learning Indaba, whose aim is to increase the participation of African peoples in the AI sphere.
Follow These Top AI Influencers to Stay Ahead of the Game
This is just a sampling of some of the biggest AI influencers that you need to be following in 2020. Their social media feeds are condensed courses in the state of the art when it comes to AI, so following them is a great way to stay current in the field.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in AI, or just want to keep up with the latest developments, these are the people to watch.