How I Stay Up to Date With the Latest AI Trends [2024]
Stay ahead of the AI game with a concise list of resources…
AI is changing day by day.
With so much happening so fast, you could be using a technology that is completely replaced by another and you may not even know about it.
Whether for fear of missing out or staying relevant in the fast-paced 2024 AI and data science job market, keeping current with what is happening in the AI landscape is more crucial than any other field in tech.
I have been in various online AI communities in the past year, and have also been writing technical posts on the latest technologies and ML research papers. I had to find the most optimized ways to stay updated with the AI industry and in this blog post, I will share my recourses for programmers, students, or AI practitioners.
Disclaimer: I constantly update my list of resources. What worked in 2023 may not be relevant to the 2024 trending topics. Also, none of the resources mentioned in this post are paid-only or sponsored. Finally, while there are many newsletters and blogs worth following, I won’t clutter this post with hundreds of resources and links. I’ll keep it concise, hand-picked, and practical to follow regularly, even if you have a full-time job.
Read Newsletters for Quick Daily Updates
Newsletters are my go-to resource for the beginning of the day to make sure I have the most important recent updates. It doesn’t take more than ten minutes per day to keep yourself updated via the right newsletters. I personally like newsletters that are more designed for developers, rather than the ones covering only the “AI news”. On that note, here’s my go-to list in no particular order:
AlphaSignal: I particularly like this one because it’s tailored for technical readers and developers. It’s a nutritious mix of all you need as an AI practitioner: Top News which is usually an actionable piece of news you might need to know as a developer, Latest Trending posts and blog articles, A list of Trending GitHub Repos related to AI, and Lectures or Webinars for adding to your knowledge.
TheSequence: A newsletter curated for industry experts. “TheSequence’s goal is to make you smarter about artificial intelligence 5 minutes at a time.” Each email focuses on a recent research breakthrough or a topic you may need to explore further as an AI practitioner, such as AI Agents or DSPy.
The Neuron: A newsletter to have in your inbox for a mixture of news, releases, and updates in the landscape of AI. If you’re not knee-deep into the AI gossip, The Neuron is a great newsletter to just keep you posted with a compact sandwich of all you might want to know that is happening in the industry.
TLDR AI: One of the most popular newsletters in tech, also branches out into covering the latest in AI research papers, industry news, and engineering updates. I have signed up for this newsletter only recently, so I need more time to reach a conclusion. However, I like the general outline and structure of the newsletter and what it covers.
The Rundown AI: If you are looking for something to cover the general news about AI companies or the latest AI product releases, this is a popular newsletter, and for a good reason. Furthermore, at the end of their emails, you can find the latest Trending AI Tools (IDEs, agents, visualizations, etc.) and AI Job Opportunities.
For those who are invested in NLP and LLMs, there are two particular newsletters you shouldn’t miss:
NLP Newsletter hands out weekly updates on the most important research papers in the field of NLP.
Ahead of AI by Sebastian Raschka, educates on the developments and the research in the field of ML, particularly in Large Language Models.
Subscribe to AI Channels on YouTube
For most of us, YouTube serves as where we watch a tutorial when learning something, like a visual search engine. But you could also find channels to subscribe to for a regular watch. Some are more on the educational end and some on the entertaining end of the spectrum, and I believe keeping it diverse keeps it fun.
There are many more channels in the realm of AI worth giving a look at, which may need a separate post of its own. However, to keep it short and practical, here’s a list of channels I advise:
AI Jason
A channel I have been very invested in recently. While the creator, Jason Zhou, introduces himself as a “product designer who shares interesting AI experiments & products”, I found his channel to be one of the most informative, covering important and trendy AI topics with an entertaining twist. It’s difficult to create helpful videos that are not boring, but AI Jason pulls it off.
AI Explained
Also another fresh channel, AI Explained is best if you want to follow the latest topics and released products. It’s a great option if you want to absorb all of the available information to know about, let’s say, a recently published LLM such as Llama 3.1.
Two Minute Papers
The channel is famous for making the latest research accessible and fun to follow. While it covers areas of research, AI is a major focus of the channel worth sticking to. It can help you get a grasp on the latest research achievements with a visual taste.
3Blue1Brown
It’s hard to miss out on the amazing educational videos of Grant Sanderson’s channel. He dives deep into fundamental and complex concepts in his amazing visualizations and narratives. To be fair, it’s not a channel to follow for “AI Trends”, but more to educate yourself with a more intuitive understanding. For ML readers, I would suggest the Neural Networks and Essence of Linear Algebra playlists.
Technical Blog Posts For a Deeper Dive
While newsletters provide a broad but summarized overview of the AI space on a short-term basis, several blogs by prestigious organizations and companies, such as Google and Spotify, offer a deeper dive. These blogs discuss the latest research achievements of these companies, usually about their engineering challenges.
You may need to dedicate a good chunk of your time to these, but it’s a good investment. Here’s a list of the best in the industry, in no particular order:
Don’t Underestimate the Social Media
Social media may remind you of mindless doomscrolling in your free time. That’s only if you use it with a consumer mindset and miss out on the advantages. LinkedIn and X are particularly great places to be if you want to hear the word on the street about what is happening in AI.
Why do you need social media as a data scientist?
It just happens that most of the releases and announcements you read in the newsletters are first discussed on social media where many developers, researchers, and authors have an active presence. Here’s how to use social media in an optimized and purposeful way:
X/Twitter: I have gathered a list (AI Digest List) of the most important figures on this platform that you will need to follow to keep up with the latest in AI. It covers a wide range of AI in art, products, research, etc.
LinkedIn: There are many figures you can follow on LinkedIn for a unique perspective on AI concepts and tools. For starters, take a look at Zack Wilson, Santiago Valdarrama, Sebastian Raschka, PhD, and Akshay Pachaar.
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