We’re experiencing a profound shift in how educational content is created and delivered. Online education platforms are flourishing, and a recent Pew Research poll shows the world’s leading video platform YouTube has finally become more than a repository of cat videos — about half of YouTube users say it’s very important for helping them figure out how to do things they’ve never done before.

The year 2019 saw unprecedented growth in YouTube educational content on artificial intelligence. Synced has selected 10 AI-oriented YouTube channels we hope might provide our readers a cozy little holiday binge-watching session.

Preserve Knowledge (YouTube)

Preserve Knowledge focuses on advances in mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. Playlists include NIPS 2016 Workshop on Adversarial Training (Ian Goodfellow talks about his work developing GANs), Heroes of Deep Learning, Interviews (Andrew Ng, Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Yann LeCun, Ian Goodfellow, etc.). The channel also covers recent events, eg. a talk on Neural ODEs given by NeurIPS 2018 Best Paper author David Duvenaud at this year’s NeurIPS.

Two Minute Papers (YouTube)

Károly Zsolnai-Fehér is the brilliant mind behind this popular channel that introduces new science researches, particularly AI-related, in two minutes or so. The site releases new content every week and has attracted 425k subscribers. It seems like no matter how complicated the theory in a jargon-dense study, Two Minute Papers can always find a way to deliver a video that breaks down the details in the time it takes to eat an apple.

Lex Fridman (YouTube)

A researcher in human-centered AI, deep learning, autonomous vehicles & robotics at MIT, Lex Fridman displays his broad interests on this channel. Interviewees include well-known figures in the AI community such as Judea Pearl, Elon Musk, François Chollet, etc. The channel is an all-in-one platform for Fridman’s educational content: AI podcasts, deep learning lectures, self-driving car lectures, new research, etc.

ArXiv Insights (YouTube)

Xander Steenbrugge created the Arxiv Insights channel to summarize his core takeaways on research papers on machine learning, reinforcement learning, and AI in general. “If you love technical breakdowns on ML & AI but you re often lazy like me, then this channel is for you!” Although Arxiv Insights isn’t as frequently updated as some other channels on our list, its clear and reliable content has attracted 42.4k subscribers.

Yannic Kilcher (YouTube)

Yannic Kilcher is another eponymous channel, created by an ETH Data Analytics Lab researcher and mainly focused on deep learning, structured learning and optimization for big data. The channel delivers Kilcher’s reviews on deep learning papers and other content in an upbeat and entertaining way, with a thorough read-through and colorful notes on the side. Compared to more popular channels, Kilcher’s 5.39k subscribers might seem humble, but the channel’s unique presentation makes it stand out in the crowd.

Leo Isikdogan (YouTube)

Intel researcher and engineer Leo Isikdoganhas created 43 educational videos on machine learning and image processing. His channel has 6.09k subscribers and offers four different series: Deep Learning Crash Course, Image and Video Processing, Hands-on Deep Learning: TensorFlow Coding Sessions, and Computer Science in 5 minutes.

Kaggle Reading Group (YouTube)

Kaggle Reading Group is not necessarily a YouTube channel but more a weekly live session where Kaggle data scientists read through and discuss NLP (Natural Language Processing) papers. The live event kicks off at 16:00 GMT every Wednesday, and previous sessions can also be viewed. Kaggle Reading Group has so far has created 45 videos and attracted almost 14,000 views.

3Blue1Brown (YouTube)

Grant Sanderson created this math YouTube channel, which mainly focuses on higher education mathematics with a concise yet distinct visual perspective. It has been widely praised by the AI community as well. Its broad topics include linear algebra, calculus, neural networks, the Riemann hypothesis, etc. For example, the channel explains neural networks in four episodes, about an hour.

Amii Intelligence (YouTube)

Discover the future of machine intelligence with Amii, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. Tune in regularly for the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, including educational videos, research presentations and demonstrations of the latest applications from our world-class researchers and Alberta’s growing machine intelligence ecosystem.

Hosting world-renown reinforcement learning pioneer Richard Sutton and many other outstanding researchers, Edmonton-based Amii is a big part of Canada’s growing AI ecosystem. The channel is a hidden gem with 102 videos but only 944 subscribers.

Simons Institute (YouTube)

Housed in Calvin Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing is a venue for collaborative research in theoretical computer science. Although its content is broader than just AI, the channel has presented talks from leading researchers in theoretical computer science and related fields, and discussed pressing and AI-relevant issues such as the limits of computation, etc.

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Synced has also noticed a convenient and useful collection of talks recorded at machine learning conferences, workshops, seminars, summer schools, etc. compiled on this GitHub Page. Thanks to Research Scientist Dustin Tran at Google Brain who actively maintains the list.