* Disclaimer: When I say “math” I’m referring to the math that AI models rely on (or technically, the math that the AI models ARE), in the first place. In other words, I’m referring to Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics/Probability, and higher level maths.
Everybody has a subject that they dislike in school. For some, it’s english: having to write one essay after another and read a large amount of books may lead to the disapproval of this course of study. For others, it’s science: maybe biology or chemistry did not connect with them. However, for many people, math becomes the bane of their existence. Whether it’s an inadequate teacher, the complexity of the subject, or just an unfavorable experience with the class, numerous people end up gaining a distaste for mathematics. This hatred for math becomes a problem for many reasons, one of them being the necessity of math in fields such as, you guessed, artificial intelligence.
With the rise of AI in the past few years, many strive to join the industry in some way. Whereas this may seem like a good idea, many point to the fact that there are barriers of entry to the field. One such barrier is the supposed need to be an expert at math in order to succeed in AI. This is especially frightening to those who, as stated before, are not exactly the biggest math fans in the world. In this article, I want to go over whether you really need to be good at math to enter the field.
The Quick Answer
Getting to the point quickly, the answer to this question is dependent on many factors, such as which exact profession you are trying to take on. If you want to be an AI researcher who creates new architectures for neural networks or tries to find out how a deep learning model really “learns” (mechanistic interpretability), then YES, you will need to know a LOT of math. However, generally speaking, you DO NOT NEED TO KNOW MATH TO “HOP ON THE AI TRAIN”, but to an extent. Most frameworks that you will use when creating AI models abstract the mathematical aspects of AI, making it so that you can create an entire pipeline for creating models with only a high level understanding of what is really going on. Basically, you can solve real world problems with AI models that you create by only understanding the programming side of things while knowing minimal amounts of the mathematical side. Nonetheless, there are still caveats to this, so let’s discuss those next.
Profession
As said before, the level of math that you need to know and understand relies heavily on which exact profession you are trying to enter in the AI field. For example, most AI researchers will have to be good at math (although that in itself depends on WHAT they are researching). On the other hand, the average prompt engineer won’t really need to know Multivariable Calculus in their career. Other occupations like a Data Scientist or AI Engineer also don’t need to know math, but their case is a bit different. Even if prebuilt libraries do abstract away much of the complex math, it is still good to obtain at least a high level understanding of what is truly going on behind the scenes. If the extent of your knowledge doesn’t go beyond a bunch of syntax that you have memorized, then it shows that you have room for improvement. It is also important to note that even if you don’t need to have a full mathematical understanding of what is going on in the background, there is still no harm in learning some of the math behind things. In fact, this may come as a shocker, but learning will only help you, not harm you. With that in mind, here are a few resources out of many that you can use to learn math:
Learn the General Math needed for AI:
Learn Math specifically in relation to AI:
Passion
Many people only want to join the AI field due to its large growth over the past few years and, more importantly, for the $$$. If your end goal is to just get a job in the field and make a living (which is fair, don’t get me wrong), then you don’t need to worry about a lack of math knowledge being a detriment to your career. On the other hand, if you are truly passionate about AI and want to learn as much as you can about it, then you will definitely need to deal with the math behind it eventually.
To summarize, the necessity of knowledge in math is dependent on various factors, such as the exact profession you plan on joining in the AI field and your passion for AI. Generally speaking though, you do not NEED to know math or “be good” at math in order to have a successful career in the field. This does not take away from the fact that you should know; at least at a high level, about what is going on behind the scenes when you write and run code. And remember, knowing the math is still going to be extremely helpful for you.