Artificial Intelligence expert Ali Naderi joined our Digital Innovation Management team mid-December. In the interview he explains what makes Porsche Informatik and his job at the company so attractive.
Ali Naderi
Hello Ali, can you tell us a bit more about your background?
I am from Shiraz, an ancient and sunny city in southern Iran near the Persian Gulf. I previously completed a bachelor’s degree in the field of software engineering, followed by a master’s in the field of information technology (Iran), before relocating to Spain to take a PhD in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (BarcelonaTech). There, I started my PhD studies focusing on natural language processing at the TALP Research Centre (Centre for Language and Speech Technologies and Applications). As soon as I finished my PhD, I received an offer from a software company in Madrid for a post as a computational linguist. There I was a member of software engineering team developing intelligent systems for our clients including Pfizer and World Bank. After that, I moved to Salzburg to work at Porsche Informatik.
What drove you to choose your career path?
The near future of our lives will be completely blended with intelligent systems. They will impact every dimension of our lives. This is a fact that human beings would have to face, sooner or later. The possible ways an intelligent system can imitate human behaviour always made me curious. Interacting with intelligent systems is a challenge that I am highly interested in tackling and addressing.
How did you end up at Porsche Informatik?
When I saw this open position at Porsche Informatik for the first time, I was attracted by the fact that it had everything I could wish for from a job, i.e. working in my field of interest at a great company. The more I found out about the company and its past, the more I was convinced that it would be a good choice. After several interviews, we decided to work together, cooperating in a great team.
You are an AI expert. What’s your role at Porsche Informatik?
One of the main missions of the Digital Innovation Management (DIM) team that I belong to, is to offer advanced and innovative services, applications and systems that can change the way of their traditional usage. With this objective and under this strategy, I was hired to design, develop and deploy AI systems.
What is the main challenge that you face while working at Porsche Informatik?
Each goal has its own challenges and, in general, we cannot find any work that does not involve difficulty. I love facing challenges and this gives me a better feeling when I solve them. There may be some technical challenges in my work, but they can easily be solved.
Where do you see Porsche Informatik in 5 years? And where will you be in 5 years?
With the new management board and their experience in technical concepts, I think that Porsche Informatik will make faster progress and become even more successful over the next five years. Also, with the excellent infrastructure that Porsche Informatik provides, I think I could improve my knowledge and experience in different dimensions.
What’s the most enjoyable part of the job?
The best part of the job is achieving results after a lot of hard work.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
Usually there is a mistaken belief about intelligent machines such as future robots. Most people think these machines cannot feel like humans. But I would say, in the near future, not only will they be able to feel, but also to smile, cry, be sad or love in a similar way to humans.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
Interest is my most valuable asset. It helps me to address the challenges I face.
What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?
I think that success in every profession is the result of two elements: one is having interest in that work and the other is diligence. The combination of these two elements and learning from our mistakes define our future success.
Why is AI important for Porsche Informatik?
In some articles the authors have described AI as “the continuation of animal evolution in habitable planets”. Recently many software companies have become highly interested in developing systems and applications that can imitate human intelligence. The reason is that such intelligent systems are slowly gaining the ability to think like humans and their computation speed is so much faster. Therefore the major advantage of AI systems is a reduction in costs. In future, the learning algorithms in intelligent machines will be even more complicated than natural neural networks in the human brain and therefore they will be able to process more efficiently. To this end, Porsche Informatik is one of many software companies that would like to take advantage of deploying AI for its customers.
Three words to describe you?
Try, try and try again.
Anything about you that people might not know and you’d like to share?
Traveling and seeking out great shots of nature are my favourite hobbies. Austria and especially Salzburg have very beautiful landscapes. So I think I will be able to gather a unique collection of photos.
What is the first thing you do in the morning? Do you have a routine?
Normally, after waking up in the morning, I do some exercise, take a shower and eat a small breakfast to prepare myself for the start of a perfect working day.
Favourite book?
Apart from my field of expertise focussing on AI, I am also interested in studying mathematics, physics and cosmology in my spare time. My favourite book is “My Brief History” by Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist. The book depicts a biography of a strong man tackling the rare disability of motor neuron disease. However, this did not stop him from achieving his goals. Also, the areas of his work, such as string theory (or the theory of everything), quantum theory, and parallel universes are so attractive for me.
Who inspires you most?
Elon Musk, the famous investor and inventor, is a person who greatly inspires me. His ideas always contain great innovation and novelty. He can make the world a better place. His ambitious ideas and his creativity have already resulted in several unique companies: Tesla (electric cars), SpaceX (aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company), OpenAI (AI research company), and Neuralink (neurotechnology company developing implantable brain–computer interfaces). We will hear much more about him in the near future.
