PA ImagesElon Musk is hiring at Tesla, and you can apply regardless of whether or not you have a PhD, university degree or even a high school diploma.
The electric car company, which Musk owns and co-founded, is looking for someone to work in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Tesla Autopilot to help develop a ‘general solution to full self-driving.’
The successful applicant would report directly to Musk, and have regular interaction with the owner.
PA ImagesMusk advertised the role on Twitter, writing:
Join AI at Tesla! It reports directly to me & we meet/email/text almost every day. My actions, not just words, show how critically I view (benign) AI.
Tesla will soon have over a million connected vehicles worldwide with sensors & compute needed for full self-driving, which is orders of magnitude more than everyone else combined, giving you the best possible dataset to work with.
Tesla will soon have over a million connected vehicles worldwide with sensors & compute needed for full self-driving, which is orders of magnitude more than everyone else combined, giving you the best possible dataset to work with
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2020
The entrepreneur went on to discuss the benefits of the role, including access to the ‘custom 144 TOPS in-vehicle inference computer’ and Tesla’s training supercomputer ‘Dojo’, which can ‘process vast amounts of video training data & efficiently run hypersparce arrays with a vast number of parameters, plenty of memory & ultra-high bandwidth between cores’.
I admit, Musk lost me at ‘sensors & compute’, but if you managed to understand any of the above then you could be the perfect candidate.
PAThe autopilot team will be holding a ‘super fun AI party/hackathon’ for potential candidates, and Musk stressed academic achievements aren’t necessary for the role after a Twitter user asked if they had time to ‘get a quick PhD in AI’ to be in with a chance.
Musk wrote:
A PhD is definitely not required. All that matters is a deep understanding of AI & ability to implement NNs in a way that is actually useful (latter point is what’s truly hard).
Don’t care if you even graduated high school.
A PhD is definitely not required. All that matters is a deep understanding of AI & ability to implement NNs in a way that is actually useful (latter point is what’s truly hard). Don’t care if you even graduated high school.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2020
Tesla’s application page appears to be just as relaxed, as it simply asks applicants to submit their name, email and some ‘exceptional work’ they have done.
Musk went on to reiterate ‘[e]ducational background is irrelevant’, though he warned all applicants ‘must pass [a] hardcore coding test’.
The first test, in my opinion, is the ability to make sense of the other things he references in his tweet, which read:
Our NN is initially in Python for rapid iteration, then converted to C++/C/raw metal driver code for speed (important!). Also, tons of C++/C engineers needed for vehicle control & entire rest of car.
Our NN is initially in Python for rapid iteration, then converted to C++/C/raw metal driver code for speed (important!). Also, tons of C++/C engineers needed for vehicle control & entire rest of car. Educational background is irrelevant, but all must pass hardcore coding test.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2020
If you were able to make sense of all that, you can apply for a job here.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.