Why I Decided to Quit My PhD in AI

Dropping out of a PhD for the startup world

Good morning fellow AI enthusiast! This week's iteration focuses on my PhD in AI... or rather, why I finally decided to stop it.

This is a very important video and decision for me, and it was a challenging one to take. I hope you like the final result and find the video helpful for your own future decisions.

Before we keep going, please take a second to leave a like! This simple click helps my work... a lot.

Yes. I dropped out. I quit. I left.

I was one year into this journey, passionate and immersed in the world of research and academia. However, I still decided to take the leap and focus on my startup, Towards AI, and other projects like my YouTube channel.

Don’t get me wrong; the Ph.D. was a significant chapter, and I think it is definitely worth it for many, yet my hope was that story might resonate with your inner debates and questions like: is a Ph.D. the right path for you?

Here’s why I decided to drop out...

• A growing desire to innovate and create independent projects, outside the academic sphere

• A strong pull towards entrepreneurship and the high-energy culture of startups

• The need to implement theoretical knowledge in real-world applications with immediate impact

• A wish to see ideas transform into tangible solutions more rapidly

• Stress. Trying to balance between PhD work and personal projects was stressful, resulting in feeling overworked yet underproductive

• After talking to a dozen experts in my podcast, I realized that while academia provided valuable skills, these could be equally gained through industry work, particularly in startups

• An underlying need to fully own and control the work, for better motivation

p.s. If you think the same/differently, or just did a Ph.D. or are currently in one, I'd love to hear from you; hit reply! :)

Now for the more "positive" part... Who is a PhD for (according to me).

• Individuals who love deep research.

• Aspiring professors.

• People who are okay with working on complex problems for long period.

• Those who value contributing to a vast body of knowledge.

• Individuals considering a career in academia or teaching.

• Those who enjoy learning and improving for long-term projects.

• Individuals who derive satisfaction from sharing knowledge.

• People who aspire to work in big companies that value formally recognised titles.

Share this with your friends in a PhD or considering it! I tried to provide as much value as possible to help make a more informed decision.

This is not a rent against the PhD, far from it. It is valuable to many people. It just wasn't for me.

Learn more in the full article or my recent video about it:

And that's it for this iteration! I'm incredibly grateful that the What's AI newsletter is now read by over 13,000+ incredible human beings and counting. Share this iteration with a friend if you learned something new!

Looking for more cool AI stuff? 👇

• Looking for AI news, code, learning resources, papers, memes, and more? Follow our newsletter at Towards AI, which is going out weekly!

• Looking for other AI enthusiasts? Join my Discord community: Learn AI Together!

• If you need more content to go through your week, check out the podcast!

• Please reach out with any questions or details on sponsorships, or visit my Passionfroot profile to see the sponsorship offers.

Thank you for reading, and we wish you a fantastic week! Be sure to have enough rest and sleep!

Louis