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Ask HN: What Is an "AI Engineer"?

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Re: Ask HN: What Is an "AI Engineer"?

#41
At Databricks they’re responsible for the creation, care, and feeding of the AI agents we have in production. As these start to perform real use cases, you have to ensure they’re actually delivering the outcomes they were designed to do… and don’t drift. More often than not they’re resolving upstream data/context issues and now cost optimization with model selection and testing.

Re: Ask HN: What Is an "AI Engineer"?

#43
When the hype cycle for "technology x" is in full swing, everybody becomes a "x engineer", sometimes without even knowing. According to some of my previous employers, I've been an "engineer" in areas such as information security, development using specific languages and/or frameworks and the like. This was of course more performative than anything else - no reputable dev shop would be caught dead not having a couple blockchain engineers on call when the customer demands.

IMHO, it not only means nothing at all, it also could mean nothing in several different ways. For example, if you take "AI engineer" to mean "someone who uses AI as a tool in their daily job as a software developer", then I'm also a "chair engineer", "coffee engineer" and "keyboard engineer" as well, since I consider those essential to be able to design and code, even if they're not part of the deliverable. Or you could go the way of champagne - "engineer is anyone who is registered by this engineering council/association, and this is done by filling certain requirements in matters of education and/or professional status".

Re: Ask HN: What Is an "AI Engineer"?

#45

It doesn't mean anything. The very title "engineer" is a massive scam to begin with, especially in places like the United States where it's neither a protective title or credentialed. Any asshole can call themselves an engineer and nobody bats an eye at the absurdity. When employers invent these titles like "AI engineer", they're looking for tech geeks who check off the keywords du jour. It's no different from the no…

this kind of gatekeeping is cringe yea i know there are PE exams and certs doesn’t change the fact that it’s cringe no amount of down votes can convince me otherwise

Work with some chukelfucks that don't know what they're doing and have no standards, and the cringe will go in the other direction. The gatekeeper serves a purpose. It's not arbitrary. We don't want bridges that fall down nor skyscrapers. Cars shouldn't randomly explode, either.

Re: Ask HN: What Is an "AI Engineer"?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this kind of gatekeeping is cringe yea i know there are PE exams and certs doesn’t change the fact that it’s cringe no amount of down votes can convince me otherwise

Work with some chukelfucks that don't know what they're doing and have no standards, and the cringe will go in the other direction. The gatekeeper serves a purpose. It's not arbitrary. We don't want bridges that fall down nor skyscrapers. Cars shouldn't randomly explode, either.

true. thankfully i’ve limited my exposure to annoying terribads like that.
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