What do I need to learn in order to become an artificial intelligence researcher? logic + philosophy + arts

[cregox]

originally written on quora yet another "self help" thought:

scientifically I'd say you could think of Ai with 3 axis: logic, philosophy and arts.

(if this answer gets enough interest I'll expand more)

logic
that's the binary world, the same one that constructs math and progamming*. you can't have any kind of intelligence without a solid logic.

philosophy
this is the spiritual world, looked upon mostly through logic (i.e. with much intelligence).

arts
materialization. Ai is a lot about ideas but nothing of that matters if you can't bring it to the real world. making a spam filter out of pure logic is an awesome piece art and, make no mistake, programming is a form of art!

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there really is nothing in your life you can't use to learn about researching for Ai, specially if you're talking about the tech singularity. anything works.

now, if all you want is weak Ai, the one being sold today, you can leave philosophy behind and focus most your efforts in logic and, if you're lucky enough, make tons of money with it, with a good enough art. just keep in mind money isn't everything - it's just 1/3 of it.