08-11
What Is an AI Engineer?
A concise role introduction to AI engineering, drawing on Latent Space's 'The Rise of the AI Engineer.' It draws the line at the API boundary: AI Engineers orchestrate models to build applications, while ML Engineers build the model APIs themselves. The post argues newcomers don't need linear algebra or pretraining experience; instead they need strong software fundamentals, evaluation frameworks, and feedback loops. It also distinguishes AI Engineers from AI-assisted developers who merely use tools like Copilot. Web developers are presented as well suited for the transition, and TypeScript is called a fast-growing fit. The article is accessible but conceptual, with a promotional block for the author's AI Hero skills system.