Given the times we are living in, India-based French businessman Hadelin de Ponteves understood the relevance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) long back. The 31-year-old runs an online education business on AI and his courses have been bestsellers on Udemy. In fact, he has over 1.3 million students across 215 countries.
In his opinion, the future of AI lies in automation, easier lifestyle and safety. He feels that a lot of jobs will be automated, making the processes much more efficient. We will be able to do whatever we want on our phone faster and faster. And there will be less car crashes and less accidents at work with the growing precision of AI monitoring diverse environments. “I don’t believe in singularity, which is the theory according to which there will be an AGI (artificial general intelligence) more intelligent than humans in anything. Or if this happens, I believe this will not be in our lifetime,” says Hadelin.
So does he think AI can ever replace humans , and Hadelin says, “Yes I do, because it is already doing it.” A lot of jobs are being replaced by humans: traders, workers in conveyor belts, analysts and many more jobs. But he also feels that some jobs will never be replaced, like engineers because we will always need them to build and monitor the AIs, doctors because AI will never be more than assisting tools to them, and artistes, because art without the human soul is not art.
A few years ago, Hadelin quit his job at Google because he wanted to start something of his own in the field of AI in order to have a larger impact. Ask him about his future vision regarding the business, and he says, “My vision is simple: Democratize Artificial Intelligence as much as I can, in order to prepare students for the current and future jobs all related to AI.” He plans to create more online courses and reach many more millions of students. His goal is to reach 10 million students (1 crore students) by 2025.
Interestingly, among his 13.2 lakhs students, four lakh are from India. And out of the 215 countries, India is at the top of the ranking of countries buying his courses. Hadelin now resides in India. Talking about his love for the country, he says that he feels much more connected to this country than other countries. He has a lot of Indian friends. He loves Indian culture and food. In fact, he’s also looking forward to debuting as a film actor and he’s already signed two Indian films.
