Hacker News Reader

Comment by rmah | Hacker News Reader

Is this guy actually a researcher in the way most people would think of it? That is, someone who pushes the boundaries of science; who develops new AI techniques or finds the hard boundaries of existing AI techniques; who finds new ways compose multiple AI techniques cohesively; who explores the theoretical foundations of AI.

Or is he someone who uses AI techniques to solve problems (and then wrote a paper about it)? I can't help but wonder a bit.

View on HN

For better or worse, the definition of researcher has morphed into a combination of

1. Solves previously unsolved problems

2. Publishes papers sharing those solutions

without regard to the kind/spirit/scope of problems solved.

Since conference publications don’t have the same number constraints as journal papers, and are accepting of application-specific results, this explosion of what is considered “research” is somewhat inevitable. Also, there are a lot of people chasing this given the prestige associated with the title.

Yes.

From his GH profile looks like he's a competitive applicant for ML engineering positions or perhaps a fellowship/residency/PhD program.

So, a junior researcher at the level of a decent second or third year PhD student. A researcher, maybe someone you'd trust to build a prototype or product, lots of potential, but probably not someone you'd trust to run a research program.

Research needs people at the entire spread of the spectrum - from those making fundamental improvements to underlying theory, all the way to people running the thing to see if it works on actual problems people have (obviously in a robust and verifiable way).

Most people would be wrong if they think that this is what all researchers do

Reply on news.ycombinator.com