[HN Gopher] On Impactful AI Research
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       On Impactful AI Research
        
       Author : KraftyOne
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2024-09-24 20:56 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | will-burner wrote:
       | This has good advice about academic research in general not just
       | AI Research. It's huge to "Select timely problems with large
       | headroom and "fanout"" - you need a research program to have a
       | successful research career. At least most people do. It's also
       | huge to "Put your work out there and own popularizing your ideas"
       | - the second part is hard for a lot of academics to do. Putting
       | your work out there is huge to get feedback, which may help you
       | pivot or try different directions, as well as fostering
       | collaboration. Collaboration is a large part of being a
       | successful researcher.
        
       | tony_cannistra wrote:
       | "Invest in projects, not papers."
       | 
       | This is excellent advice, and in my experience does not represent
       | the intuition that many young (and not so young) researchers
       | begin with.
       | 
       | Papers come from projects and, if you care, good projects can
       | yield many good papers!
        
         | juujian wrote:
         | Idk, nothing wrong with going for a low-hanging fruit and doing
         | a one-off sometimes. So many academics fail to get stuff over
         | the finish line. Not the right advice for everybody.
        
           | danielmarkbruce wrote:
           | Interesting. This is a common problem in academia?
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | Yeah, but it's not saying "don't do papers", it's saying your
           | long-term investment should be projects.
        
       | vouaobrasil wrote:
       | > how do I do research that makes a difference in the current,
       | rather crowded AI space?
       | 
       | I hope they are first asking, to which bank accounts is the
       | research actually making a difference? It's a great fraud to
       | present research problems to stimulate the intellect of the naive
       | youth when they have no capability to assess its social impact.
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-24 23:00 UTC)