Sergios Karagiannakos
Founder & Deep Learning Writer at AI Summer
I am a Machine Learning Engineer with a specific focus on Deep Learning and Machine Learning Infrastructure. In 2018, I founded AI Summer, a blog around Deep Learning, with the sole purpose to educate people about Artificial Intelligence and motivate as many individuals as possible to work on Deep Learning. Besides that, I have helped many different companies building their AI products and adopt Machine Learning into their businesses.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I started out with a Master in Electrical and Computer Engineering where I focused on Neural Networks and Parallel Processing. Then I worked as a Data Scientist in a web development agency (Eworx SA), as an independent Machine Learning Engineer with different startups, and as Software Engineer in the Machine Learning Infrastructure team at HubSpot. All of these positions are centred around one particular skill: how to develop, deploy and scale deep learning architectures.
For the past 2 years, writing weekly articles for AI Summer has been core to expanding my skills. Researching and implementing all these different models provided me with a solid background in the field of deep learning research and came with a very important side effect: the growth of my network and influence far beyond my expectations.
What topic areas are you most passionate about?
Deep Learning, Machine Learning Infrastructure, MLOps, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing. Since I work at the intersection of Machine Learning research and Software Engineering, I am also very interested in software-related topics such as distributed computing, big data processing, cloud computing, and low-level programming. But above all, I am truly passionate about driving the adoption of Machine Learning in all industries and educate as many people as possible about the potential of Artificial Intelligence.
Which influencers influence you within those key topics?
It’s incredibly hard to pick only a few but I have to include: Yann LeCun, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, Ian Goodfellow, Demis Hassabis, Andrej Karpathy, Oriol Vinyals, Fei-Fei Li, Lex Fridman, and François Chollet.
Outside of key topics, who else influences you?
I’m very motivated by the work of organizations trying to democratize artificial intelligence and technology in general. Needless to say that I am a huge fan of open-source. Endeavors such as the work of Linus Torvalds on Linux, the open-source repositories of Github, OpenAI, the blockchain of Ethereum, FreeCodeCamp, and more, is what drives me to continue working with the same passion.
How would you describe your offline influence?
Creating intuitive and highly-detailed content is when I’m at my best. I love to discuss/debate with small or bigger groups about technology and I am really motivated when I collaborate with clients to build their AI strategy and help them incorporate Machine Learning into their businesses. Finally, I am currently writing an online course which will be published within the next months..
What’s your best source of information for getting ahead of a story? What resource do you use to stay ahead of the trend?
I spend most of my free time on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay updated on the latest trends and I really enjoy reading curated newsletters. Participating in conversations on our Discord server also takes a good portion of my time. Recently I heard that Clubhouse is quite good, so I might give it a try.
If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?
What brands have you worked with?
I mostly collaborate with educational websites and platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, edX, and educative.io. From time to time, I am also writing content for other AI blogs.
Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?
I am happy to provide a quote for content or news article, share/create a social post, speak at an event, podcast or a webinar. I am also interested in co-creating long form content.
What are your passions outside of work?
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
Through Twitter, LinkedIn or email.