My “WHY” for AI & Machine Learning:
Growing up, my dream was always to make gaming content on YouTube. Unfortunately, my childhood was during a time when parents were pretty pessimistic about technology usage, and nobody around me viewed content creation as a real path—so I had zero support. I used to pick up loose change off the ground in NYC to save up for basic equipment, sneak onto my dad’s laptop late at night to record, and edit video clips on school computers whenever I could squeeze in time.
Against all odds, that hustle actually worked—I managed to build an audience and saw real success with my channels. But no matter how hard I worked, I hit a massive wall: I lacked the high-end hardware and expensive software needed to push my content to the next level. I had the drive, but the technical barriers held me back from reaching my full potential.
That experience is the core reason I fell in love with AI. Tech shouldn't only belong to people who can afford thousands of dollars in gear or spend years mastering overwhelming software. AI is the ultimate equalizer—it opens doors for anyone who has a great idea and the drive to pursue it, regardless of their background or resources.
Today, that vision directly shapes my work. At Handshake AI, I help train and audit automatic speech recognition (ASR) models to convert video and audio into accurate text. Think about a deaf creator trying to edit a video of themselves: without being able to hear the audio cues, the process is nearly impossible. An AI tool that precisely transcribes and time-codes clips completely levels the playing field for them. Whether it's making content creation accessible to disabled creators or building tools that automate hours of tedious timeline assembly, my goal with AI is simple: break down technical walls so anyone with a spark can just create.