Is it possible to break into ML/data science without a degree?

Question

A couple of you might remember me from my last post [0]. Thanks for the advice back then - I&rsquo;m in a much better spot now, working at a super fun startup, still coding Rust during the days and through the nights.My employer recently told us that they have ~2 years of runway so I&rsquo;ve been thinking of backup plans. I feel like I could always get a job at some other rust shop, but I find myself fascinated by AI and haven&rsquo;t been able to stop playing with Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. I have no degree, but you can assume I know how to implement backprop, know how to take a partial derivative & other basic calc/stats knowledge, and I&rsquo;m willing to spend a year grinding on everything else I&rsquo;m missing.So, my question is: what would I need to do to break into the industry? Is it even possible?[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29830770

streetcat1 · Accepted Answer

You are confusing operational AI with research AI.
Most of the deep learning applications have little operational use cases.
It is hard to invent a new deep learning architecture without a PHD.
It is NOT hard to train a deep learning model.
The AI value chain is moving into data driven vs model driven. I.e. the modeling part is solved, or is being automated.