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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBy looking retrospectively, there\nwere a lot of activities I participated in while being a schoolboy, and\nprobably all of those activities contributed to my AI dreams in some way. I had\nbeen creating websites and writing software for free and for money. I\nparticipated in many sessions of summer schools where we, the pupils of 12-16\nyears old, were taught software engineering and management by making us\n\u201cplaying software development companies\u201d for 5-10 days with our tutors\n\u201cordering\u201d software and purchasing them with imaginary currency. When I was\nabout 15, I was also given a great opportunity to manage a group of about 15\nhigh school children for 2 years: we successfully developed educational\nsoftware and websites and sold it to real customers. In addition to that, I\nco-organised beauty contests and short-story writing contests, as well helped to\norganise a big event of all-Russian school paper workshop by developing a web\npublishing system for it and supporting it all way through. Finally, in the\nlast year of high school, I co-founded a startup as a \u201cChief Technical Officer\u201d\nand that was the determination point for me choosing to study the Economics and\nManagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it is also fair to say\nthat I always studied hard when I could. I finished high school with all final\nA-s, and then got all A-s for my long undergrad degree which took 6 years. Both\nin school and uni, I also tried to participate in research as much as I can,\nstarting with simple research topics like \u201cWhat is the golden ratio? Let\u2019s\nmeasure it on faces of my classmates\u201d when I was around 14 years old (that was\na real topic, actually), and doing more sophisticated research on economic\ntopics when I was in the first two years of my bachelor\u2019s degree in Economics\nand Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the middle of my second year of studying the Economics and Management, I got \u201cslightly stuck\u201d. The startup which I was involved in, while being relatively successful, was not expected to grow and pivoted in a more conservative direction. I also understood that it is not possible to just learn how to be a \u201cgood manager\u201d. I was really grateful for the great foundation in Economics and Management I got during my first two years of that bachelor\u2019s degree, but I also understood that it is time to move. Around exactly that time the understanding that I dream about the artificial intelligence started to form in my mind. I successfully transferred to the Department of Mathematics, and started my bachelor\u2019s in Mathematics as a\u00a0second-year\u00a0<\/em>student again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During one of those times, I did\na very strong (as it came to my understanding much later) visualisation\ntechnique. I had the first version of the iPad during that time (which I\npurchased with the money I earned from all my ventures), and I drew and\nvisualised something in line that \u201cI see myself as one of the top grad students\nin the most strong universities where people work on the AI: Stanford, Oxford,\nMSU (Moscow State University), Cambridge, MIT, CMU, etc.\u201d. I wrote the names of\nthe universities very large, and used that visualisation for a long time, most\nprobably even subconsciously for the most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I studied hard. I focused on the\nmath and computer science. I visited 5 summer schools (two of which were\norganised by Microsoft Research) on different sub-areas of the artificial\nintelligence during one summer. I almost won the 1st place for one competition,\nbut then due to the mistake on my part got only the 4th place. Then, I won 1st\nplace at another competition at the next summer school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the next year of studying\nMathematics, I started dreaming of going as a visiting research student to one\nof those universities. I looked through all possible pages of those uni\nwebsites, which describe all info about visiting student programs. I explored\nall opportunities in terms of getting scholarships for that. I emailed\ndifferent research groups that were of interest to me. I got an offer from the\nCMU subject to me getting a Russian scholarship for being a visiting student\nthere, but I had to decline that offer because I was anxious that if I go\nthere, I would, quite probably, have to serve in the Russian army on my return\nin one year (there is a mandatory conscription in Russia, and I would lose the\n\u201cconscription deferment\u201d, to which all uni students are entitled, because I\nalready moved from the Department of Economics to the one of Mathematics).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around that time it happened that\nI travelled to Boston (and hence first time to the US) to represent my first\nstartup as (almost ex-)cofounder. During that time, I had a chance to meet with\nresearchers from MIT. That meeting happened thanks to my previous attempts of\ntrying to find a place for me as a visiting student. The topic was very\ninteresting, the people were keen to consider working with me as a student, and\nprobably I was very (genuinely) convincing that I can be a \u201cvaluable\u201d student,\nand after my trip in January 2012, the successful online collaboration had been\nhappening for several months, with me already doing some minor research\nremotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During that winter-spring 2012, I\nalso got accepted into the summer school in one of the leading Swiss\nuniversities, \u00c9cole polytechnique f\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne (EPFL). I applied there\na year before but was rejected, but this time I got accepted even for two\nprograms there, and it was a hard choice to make between them. The end of\nwinter, spring and early summer of 2012 was very intense, because I had to\nstudy hard, work on my research remotely at MIT, and also prepare the documents\nfor the scholarship which was supposed to pay for my year as a visiting student\nat MIT if I go. Around that time I also decided to take the possibility of\ngoing to the army under the mandatory conscription once returned back to\nRussia. When I say the possibility, I think it is fair to say that I also mean\nthe risk, because I was afraid of going to the army. That is because the idea\nof killing somebody when somebody else commands did not exactly align with my\nmentality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2012, 3 weeks earlier\nthan the summer program was supposed to start at EPFL, I arrived to Lausanne\nand started doing my research there as it was pre-agreed with the hosting lab\nbeforehand by email (I paid for my 3-week accommodation myself from my earned\nmoney, because I was so keen to start doing AI research).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 3 months at EPFL and then 12\nmonths at MIT (I got the scholarship and went to MIT) were truly \u201cmagical\u201d\nmonths. Almost all I did, was just the research. It was just the exciting\nresearch done in collaboration with other people who are also so excited about\nthe science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and everything else\nrelated. It was a fantastic time in fantastic places, with almost every minute\nspent thinking about the research and AI, as well as actually doing and hacking\nall it. Last night before the project presentations in Switzerland, I slept on\nthe wooden pallet (designed for testing robot gaits and smooth their falls) in\nmy EPFL lab, because I had to finish my experiments and prepare the poster for\nthe next day. As for MIT, I think I spent about 30 nights in the lab during\nthat 1 year period, doing some research. Looking back, I could not say that was\nparticularly healthy, but it was extremely exciting and helpful in my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somewhere around December 2012,\nwhen I was at MIT already for 4-5 months, I started thinking where I should go\nnext. The obvious path was to go back and finish my degree in Russia, but I was\nthinking if there might be any other alternatives to continue doing the AI\nresearch. I was looking on the internet, searching for other places where I can\ndo some research, but for somebody who did not finish a bachelor\u2019s degree, it\nwas pretty hard. I looked into other visiting student programs in other\nuniversities, including Oxford University, but all of that was very expensive\nand I did not have money to do it and did not know where to find it. I remember\nI felt really desperate and lost because of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We often hear about the power of\nvisualisation and dreams. There are so many methods and techniques, but the\nmain idea of them all is that if you want something, then you should desire\nthat as much as you can, many times; you should visualise it; you should have\nvery strong feelings about it. By that point, it already worked for MIT, and it\nwas going to work for Oxford even though I did not know about that yet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a few months later, I met at\nMIT with a professor who was going to start working in Oxford. Maybe it is\nslightly selfish to say, but I think it might be fair that because of my quite\nhard work at MIT, I was an interesting student candidate, and after some\ncollaboration at MIT, there came an opportunity to work in Oxford in the lab of\nthat professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When people talk about the\nvisualisation technique, it is not often the case that they mention another\nimportant thing. It is not enough to just being visualising your dream many\ntimes and with a lot of effort. It is also important to work hard, to actively\nlook for opportunities, and to try, try and try. And, the last, third,\nimportant component is the luck. If you are on the path to your dream, it is\nimportant to understand that the luck plays an important role. A chance might\nbring you closer or set you farther from your dreams. If the latter happens, it\ndoes not mean that you should give up. It just means that you should continue\nworking hard, enjoying it, relaxing from time to time to recharge (and this is\nvery important, even crucial I would say), and trying again. The good thing\nabout the luck though is that even she is shy, she can always get attracted to\nyou if you are trying to catch it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to the visualisation, my\nhard work, luck, and probably most importantly to the people who supported me\n(most importantly the professor who invited me to work to the lab), I spent 3\nwonderful years in Oxford. It was magical, but slightly different sort of magic\nthan at EPFL in Switzerland or at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The different sort of magic in\nOxford started straight away, even before my arrival there. I had probably\nworked too hard at MIT, and also got in \u201chard\u201d love by the end of my presence\nthere, such that I got really sick during my last day in the US. That last day\nwas full of \u201cadventures\u201d, because I was trying to get my passport with my visa\nto study in Oxford in New York for 5 hours navigating between different\nembassies, but that is a different story altogether. In any case, I got\nterribly sick on my last day in the States, and in that shape I travelled to\nIndia, where I was supposed to tutor Russian and Indian school children about\ncomputer science and mathematics in Pune, and then meet with the AI researchers\nat Microsoft Research in Bangalore. While I was able to do both activities at\nthe end, first 3 days in India I was really sick. Partially recovered, I came\nto the UK, to Oxford, but then I was occasionally sick for about next 2-3\nmonths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, my time in Oxford was\nnot all about being sick. It was still time full of magic, including AI\nresearch and feeling like a Harry Potter. The city, the university and the\ncolleges are truly magical, and the AI research is the state-of-the-art.\nHowever, for a lot of time in Oxford, my focus has unintentionally switched to\nthe love which ultimately resolved itself, as well as my searches for the God\nand findings of what it might mean, and understanding that money and family are\nvery important. The time spent in Oxford was not just effective in terms of\nlearning AI, but maybe it was even more important in starting understanding how\nthe world works, becoming mentally stronger (and my first counselling sessions\nprovided by the university helped in that) and becoming more mindful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still was that person who was\nso excited about the general artificial intelligence, about the possibility of\ncreating a software (and maybe a hardware) that can think and do things like a\nhuman, I still was excited of fathering an AI (and maybe even procreating in\nthat way), but my focus partially shifted to other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understood that while\ncontributing to the creation of the general artificial intelligence is a unique\nand be-first-to-invent grand challenge, this goal is not necessarily the only\none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are already more than 7.5\nbillion people on the Earth, more than 7.5 non-artificial intelligent beings.\nMy dream has been to create a general AI, but it is just one more intelligence\nadded to that big number of billions. However, most probably that AI will also\nsuffer, it will need energy, it will have its own needs and desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also understood that there is\nso much that can be done already to help other people. For example, simple\ntechnological applications, like washing machines or irons in the past (although,\nregretfully, still not all people have access to them yet). Generally, I\nunderstood that there are enough technological advances and enough resources to\nprovide any living being on this planet with comfortable shelter, healthy food,\nsafe environments, reliable transportation and opportunities for education and\nlabour in the areas of their interests. And, very importantly, all of this\nrequires also applications of \u201cculture\u201d and \u201carts\u201d. The technology is not\nenough, we need humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It struck me at some point that\nwhile I was trying to invent a general artificial intelligence, there is so\nmuch can be done to help us to rewrite our own programs of our lives. Good\nfiction and non-fiction books and stories help us to reprogram ourselves, to\nbecome culturally richer and feed our souls, as well as help to become more\nefficient in our professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The great books, like the Bible\n(both the old and new testaments), Quran, the books of Buddhism, the works of\nMao Tse Tung, Harry Potter, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and many others,\nall of them shape our lives every day. They define our programs as\n(hopefully) general <\/em>(but non-artificial) intelligent beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understood that there are a lot\nof opportunities to help others, both by applying the technology, as well as\nhelping the cultural developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Am I still dreaming about the\nartificial intelligence? Definitely. One reason I found a possibility for\nmyself to slow down in terms of working on the general AI days and night all\nalong, is that I know there are be bright students, scientists, inventors and\nmany big corporations who work almost purely on the general AI every day (and\nsometimes every night).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also try to contribute to it as\nmuch as I can, of course, although it is fair to say that my focus has shifted\nmore to the specific applications of machine learning and artificial\nintelligence, in particular to data analysis and predictions (e.g. as in part in\nmy startup which I had co-founded after finishing my Master\u2019s in Oxford) and\nfor medicine and human well being, as in my current job at Babylon Health. I\nhave been truly calling it my dream job, because I am able to apply the\nstate-of-the-art methods, together with my colleagues, with a great mission to\nprovide affordable and accessible healthcare to everybody on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has been an exciting journey\ntowards the general AI. I think it is fair to say it has been possible because\nof my loving family, the great people who have been helping me all my way, who\nsupported me and taught me, the great colleagues who have been working with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most important lessons\nI learnt is that everything is possible. If you focus on it, if you look for\nthe solutions and opportunities, you can get there. It allowed me to get all\nthis experience I can apply today to advance the AI and its medical\napplications. It allowed me to study and practise the Economics, Mathematics,\nComputer Science and other fields in Siberian Federal University, MIT, Oxford,\nand got a fully funded PhD position in Stanford (although the last opportunity\nI had not been able to use; but that is another story why).<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is, it is worth repeating\nmany times, that everything is possible. You just find a way <\/em>to get it. It takes time, it takes\nenergy, but anything is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the way<\/em> should be an honourable\none. It is why culture and humanities, meditation and the God are so important.\nYou get everything, but you must be sure you are getting a right thing in a\nright way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also important to remember\nthat no matter how high you have got, it is also possible to fall down. This\nactually means two things. First, due to a chance, you might lose anything, but\nthere are the integrity and honour which you still can keep. If you have\nintegrity, then it is alright. There are no guarantees in this world, but as\nfar as you have integrity and optimism, there is a high chance for you to rise\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you lose the\nintegrity, even if you are at the very top, then it is a real problem. Once the\nintegrity is lost, then it the fall is, most probably, imminent. It is very\nhard to get back, and the path of full of sincere repentance, in soul and in\ndeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to falling down,\nthere might be times of depression or temporary fallbacks and hardness,\nalthough the duration might be of different length. The dark times come, but if\nyou are strong mentally and if you know how to live (i.e. following good\npsychological hygiene, the principles of economy, looking for opportunities and\nusing them), they also go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get to your dreams, you must\ninvent. You invent for your own sake, because you get money and other\nresources, as well as for the sake of others. If you invent something useful,\npeople will benefit. The benefits for you and for others are related, of\ncourse, since as far as the people benefit from your invention, you usually\nbenefit as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get to your dreams, you must\nkeep going. Keep inventing. Keep working. Keep relaxing. Keep growing,\nspiritually and professionally. Only if it is the real end, like a bullet just\nliterally went through your heart and you have only 5 seconds left, accept the\nfinality and the death. Otherwise, if it is not that final like a bullet or\nanything else definitely final, keep going and keep growing. Smile and accept\nthe world as it is, and try to improve it. If there is no brain power for you\ntoday to invent, just work. If no power to work, just relax and prepare for\ntomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, these are things I\nwould like to keep reminding myself and maybe it might be useful for somebody\nelse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copyright\n(excluding the purchased images), is by me. If you would like to share, please,\njust link to this page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My Artificial Intelligence journey started when I was about 19 years old. I had set a clear goal…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/yuraperov.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/3-Copy.jpg\")
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