Andrej Karpathy
AI Researcher · Ex-OpenAI, Ex-Tesla
Best educator on how neural networks actually work. “Neural Networks: Zero to Hero” is the gold standard.
Who to Follow
The AI landscape moves fast. These are the people, newsletters, and shows worth following as of May 2026.
Researchers & Educators
Fundamentals & Theory
Lilian Weng
VP Research Safety · OpenAI
Deep-dives on agentic AI, reasoning, alignment. Most thorough technical writer in the field.
Sebastian Raschka
Staff Engineer · Lightning AI
Author of “Build an LLM from Scratch.” “Ahead of AI” - the best monthly deep-dive on papers.
François Chollet
Researcher · Google
Creator of Keras and ARC Prize. Challenges hype with rigorous thinking on intelligence benchmarks.
X @fcholletJeremy Howard
Co-founder · fast.ai
Made deep learning accessible through practical courses. Excellent practitioner perspective.
Interpretability & Safety
Yisroel Mirsky
AI Safety Researcher · Technion
Publishes on AI robustness, adversarial testing, and red-teaming. Essential for safety-minded builders.
X @yisroelmirskyChris Olah
Paul Christiano
Research Director · Redwood Research
Work on AI alignment and preventing deceptive alignment. Thoughtful long-term perspective.
X @paulchristianoStuart Russell
Professor · UC Berkeley
Long-time AI safety advocate. “Human Compatible” book. Philosophical + technical work.
X @Stuart_RussellSpecialized Domains
Yejin Choi
Researcher · University of Washington
NLP, commonsense reasoning, grounding. How to make models more grounded in reality.
X @yejin_choiHugging Face Team
Open-source AI · huggingface.co
Democratizing AI research. Transformers, datasets, training. Heart of open-source AI.
Karsten Schölkopf
Researcher · Google
Work on causal inference in AI. How to move beyond correlation to causation.
X @KasScholkPractitioners & Engineers (May 2026 Focus)
Business & Practical Application
Ethan Mollick
Associate Professor · Wharton School
Best voice for grounded takes on using AI at work. “One Useful Thing” - essential reading.
Simon Willison
Daniel Ek
Founder · Spotify
Posts on AI in music, personalization. Practical perspective on ML at billion-user scale.
X @eldsjalAlex Rampell
Investor · Sequoia Capital
Writes on AI market dynamics, where AI is moving. VC perspective on AI trends.
X @alexrampellInfrastructure & Engineering
Shawn Wang (swyx)
Co-founder · Latent Space
Best newsletter for AI engineers. Covers model releases, agents, infrastructure, pricing.
Jason Liu
Founder · LlamaIndex
Building the indexing layer for AI. Expert on RAG, context management, and agent architectures.
X @jt_promptHarrison Chase
Co-founder · LangChain
Creator of the most popular LLM framework. Shapes how agents are built in 2026.
X @hwchase17Zep Co-founders
Founders · Zep (Memory Infrastructure)
Building conversation memory as infrastructure. Essential for production agents.
WebsiteApplication-Specific Builders
Varun Vachhar
AI Developer · Anthropic
Practical tutorials on Claude API, agents, and production patterns. Hands-on builder.
X @varunsquadronNathan Lambert
Research Scientist · Allen Institute for AI
Clearest voice on RLHF, open-source AI, and alignment. “Interconnects” newsletter.
Isaac Sim
Researcher/Builder · NVIDIA + Open Source
Robotics + AI integration. Embodied AI in 2026. Real-world agent applications.
X @isaacsimxAidan Gomez
Co-founder · Cohere
Large-scale model training and reasoning. Expertise in building custom models for enterprises.
X @aidan_gomezIndustry Leaders & Voices
Sam Altman
CEO · OpenAI
Infrequent but meaningful posts. Signals where OpenAI is heading (reasoning, real-time, agents).
X @samaDario Amodei
CEO · Anthropic
Long-form writing on transformative AI. Safety-focused but pro-capability. Recent focus on agents.
X @darioamodeiYann LeCun
Chief AI Scientist · Meta
Turing Award winner. Contrarian takes on LLM limits. Keeps discourse intellectually honest.
X @ylecunDemis Hassabis
CEO · Google DeepMind
Posts on scientific AI applications. Recent focus on AlphaFold 3, embodied AI.
X @demishassabisElon Musk
CEO · xAI
Controversial but prolific. Posts on Grok 3, real-time AI, and X/Twitter integration.
X @elonmuskNewsletters (May 2026)
Daily Briefings
The Rundown AI
Ben's Bites
Daily · Free + Pro
New AI product launches and research. Strong filter for signal. Covers agents heavily in 2026.
SubscribeTLDR AI
Weekly Deep-Dives
The Batch
Weekly · Free
Andrew Ng’s newsletter. Research + industry news with genuine expertise. Recently covering agents and real-time AI.
SubscribeOne Useful Thing
Weekly · Free
Ethan Mollick’s Substack. Practical, evidence-based use cases. Essential for practitioners.
SubscribeLatent Space
Weekly · Free
For AI engineers. Deep dives on model releases, agents, infrastructure, inference optimization.
SubscribeAhead of AI
Monthly · Free
Sebastian Raschka’s paper review. Best educational digest. Recent focus on reasoning models.
SubscribeInterconnects
YouTube & Podcasts (May 2026)
YouTube Channels
Andrej Karpathy
Neural Networks: Zero to Hero
Foundational “build from scratch” series on transformers. Essential viewing for fundamentals.
YouTube3Blue1Brown
Math & neural network visualizations
Grant Sanderson’s animations. Best visual introduction to how transformers work.
YouTubeTwo Minute Papers
Research paper summaries
Fast way to know what’s been published. Covers language models, agents, reasoning.
YouTubeAI Explained
Deep-dives on major releases
Clear explanations of what GPT-5.5, Claude 4.7, Gemini 3.1 actually do differently.
YouTubeTech With Tim
Practical AI coding tutorials
Beginner-friendly Python, JavaScript tutorials. Great for hands-on learning with Claude API.
YouTubeCodeium
Coding assistants & agents
Practical tutorials on Cursor, Windsurf, and agentic coding. NEW in 2026.
YouTubePodcasts
Lex Fridman Podcast
Long-form interviews
Multi-hour conversations with researchers, founders across AI, robotics, reasoning.
WebsiteThe Cognitive Revolution
AI applications in production
Focuses on where AI actually has impact. Best for “real-world AI deployment.”
WebsiteLatent Space Podcast
AI engineering & infrastructure
Interviews with engineers building AI infrastructure. Technical, practical.
WebsiteNo Priors
Founders & investors in AI
Sharp questions about where AI is heading commercially. Startup/VC perspective.
WebsiteDwarkesh Patel
Long-form research conversations
Extraordinary prep. Guests include leading researchers on reasoning, alignment, agents.
WebsiteThe Gradient Podcast
AI research & implications
Interviews with researchers. Focus on interpretability, safety, reasoning models.
WebsiteCommunities & Groups
Hugging Face Community
Open-source AI builders
Forums, Discord, competitions. Where the open-source AI community gathers.
Join CommunityLangChain Community
LLM application builders
Slack, Discord, GitHub discussions. Where builders learn patterns.
Join DiscordAnthropic Discord
Claude developers
Official community for builders using Claude. Tips, patterns, releases.
Join DiscordOpenAI Community
AIHousehold
Indie AI builders
Community of solo founders and small teams using AI. Real problems, real solutions.
JoinAcademic Labs Worth Following
UC Berkeley AI Lab
Stanford AI Index
Annual AI Report · Measurement
Comprehensive data on AI progress. Benchmarks and trends tracking.
WebsiteMIT-IBM Watson Lab
Allen Institute for AI (AI2)
Emerging Voices & Communities
Indie Hackers
Solo founders building AI tools
Real people shipping AI products. Share learnings, pain points, solutions.
WebsiteProduct Hunt
Papers with Code
Link papers to code
Filter by domain: agents, reasoning, multimodal, etc. Stay on top of research.
WebsiteArXiv AI Recent
Latest research papers
Overwhelming but comprehensive. Set alerts for keywords you care about.
WebsiteHow to Stay Current (May 2026)
By Role/Interest
If you’re learning fundamentals:
- Start: Andrej Karpathy “Neural Networks: Zero to Hero” (YouTube)
- Daily: The Rundown AI or Ben’s Bites (5 min)
- Weekly: Ahead of AI or “Ahead of AI” (Sebastian Raschka)
- Time: 2-3 hours/week
If you’re building products:
- Daily: Ben’s Bites (product launches)
- Weekly: One Useful Thing (applications) + Latent Space (engineering)
- Monthly: No Priors podcast (market trends)
- Community: Indie Hackers (real problems)
- Time: 3-4 hours/week
If you’re doing research:
- Weekly: Interconnects (RLHF, alignment)
- Bi-weekly: Dwarkesh Patel podcast
- Monthly: Ahead of AI (paper summaries)
- Always: ArXiv alerts for your keywords
- Community: Papers with Code
- Time: 4-6 hours/week
If you’re leading/deciding on AI:
- Daily: The Batch or TLDR AI (strategic view)
- Weekly: One Useful Thing + Latent Space
- Quarterly: Lex Fridman podcast (deep context)
- Strategic: Sam Altman & Dario Amodei on X
- Time: 1-2 hours/week
Starter Pack (Minimal Time)
5 min/day: Pick one daily newsletter (Ben’s Bites or The Rundown AI)
1 hour/week: Pick one weekly resource:
- One Useful Thing (practical)
- Ahead of AI (research)
- Latent Space (engineering)
1 video/month: One YouTube channel episode
Result: Stay competent, not expert. Enough to know what’s happening.
Power User (Maximize Learning)
- Daily (10 min): Ben’s Bites
- Weekly (3 hours): Latent Space + Interconnects + One Useful Thing
- Bi-weekly (2 hours): Dwarkesh Patel podcast
- Monthly (2 hours): Ahead of AI + YouTube video
- Communities: 2-3 Discord/Slack servers where you ask questions
- Papers: ArXiv alerts + Papers with Code weekly skim
Result: Deep expertise, ready for production decisions.
Tips
- Optimize for signal. Not all newsletters are equal. Try 3-4, keep the 1-2 that resonate.
- Join communities. Asking questions in Discord > reading blogs.
- Subscribe to paper alerts. 2-3 keywords (agents, reasoning, RLHF) on ArXiv.
- Batch reading. Block 30 min on Sunday for the week’s newsletters.
- Unsubscribe ruthlessly. If you haven’t read it in 2 weeks, it’s not working for you.
- Follow people, not just content. Twitter lists of researchers in your area of interest.