AI isn’t a destructive technology, only in the wrong hands – 14 year old AI Expert

…… launched his first program at six!

“Child prodigies evoke awe, wonder and sometimes jealousy: how can such young children display the kinds of musical or mathematical talents that most adults will never master, even with years of dedicated practice? Lucky for these despairing types, the prevailing wisdom suggests that such comparisons are unfair — prodigies are born, not made (mostly). Practice alone isn’t going to turn out the next 6-year-old Mozart.”  Maia Szalavitz, July 10, 2012

His dream is to educate over one Million Nigerians for free on coding! With 25 programming languages under his belt, 14 year old Gerald Maduabuchi Ogbonnaya, tech advisor, Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert, machine learning algorithmist, software/app developer, author and many more, is on his way to becoming the world’s latest discovery in science.

Here is Gerald’s timeline before he turned 13:

• Coding at five
• Launched his first program at six
• Started networking hacking at seven
• First algorithm at eight
• First AI software/Neural network at nine
• First App at ten
• Commenced teaching coding at eleven
• Became world’s first DeepQA assistant chatbot at twelve
• Authored first EBook on coding
• Technology advisor & speaker at thirteen.

Few IT professionals can boast of this manner of curriculum vitae not to talk of a 14 year old.  Boys his age are mostly concerned about amusements, acquiring the coolest gadgets and all the latest fads. In contrast, this student of Community Secondary School, Asokoro (SS1), a school managed by Nigeria’s Department of State Service (DSS) has other interests.

At 13, Gerald who lives in Abuja, Nigeria with his mum and three younger siblings is probably Nigeria’s and perhaps Africa’s youngest AI expert. Believing that AI will change the world, he enthused: “It is a technology that will benefit humanity. Something so powerful that has no restrictions to any economic sector.”

At this age, he already had about 14 whatsapp groups and four Telegram channels. One of his telegram channels had 7,789 subscribers!

When he was 11, he initiated a group called ‘LetsCode,’ and began teaching coding, and computation. This group had 154 members, comprising of Nigerians, Indians, Americans and other nationals. These were experts, specialists and individuals who had been coding for a long time; the oldest participant being in his mid-twenties.

“I launched Gerald Codes at 11. There I taught thousands of aspiring coders, geniuses in the industry, intellectuals and professionals”, quipped the young wiz. When he uploaded tutorials particularly videos on computation, AI and neural networks, members were often left in shock. Above all, the most amazing was that tasks which would take others who were supposedly more versed in these matters weeks to accomplish, took him two days or less to complete, leading to his being addressed as ‘sir!’ With laugher in his voice, Gerald said: “I told them I’m not a sir; that I’m just a boy, but they didn’t believe me.”

By the time he clocked 12, he changed ‘LetsCode,’ to ‘GeraldCodes;’ sent out broadcasts, which people forwarded along with the group link and joined until it was full. He then made a second, third, up to the eleventh which is nearly filled up. There he posted videos, tips, and tutorials on computer science. Participants would often seek his assistance, counsel or even contact him privately. These shockingly include Harvard, MIT undergraduates and PhD students from Ivy League universities.

At age five, the young man was already coding. “I met the computer first when I was four years old. It was a Compaq laptop that had windows vista running as its operating system. It was a really old computer; but with it, I began my coding journey.

“Then at six, I ran my first ever computer program in C. The first was a calculator, and the second a cool game then, but with a poor gaming interface. Then at seven, I had run another program. What was remarkable at this age was, when I took interest in hacking and operating Systems. I furthered my interest in computer science, before writing an Algorithm, in C, which was a recursive algorithm, as a solution to the brahma tower. This I did at eight!”

Likewise at seven, he began teaching himself how to develop apps for Windows that could run on iOS or MacOS. Meanwhile, while playing online games on the internet, he stumbled on a video about flowcharts and algorithms. “After that video, I was just interested in it,” he remarked.

There was a little popular game at that time, which seemed to be the next after chess. The game was the Tower of Hanoi. Playing the game online, he figured out simple ways to win the three disks and rods. “I used recursion to always conquer the game, I never knew about it, till I created the algorithm at age eight.” At eight he designed a flowchart, on MS Paint, and then a week later, he created the recursive algorithm.

But it was after watching the Sci-fi, Iron Man 3 at age nine that he was inspired to explore AI. Gerald recounts: “When I was Nine, I watched a movie, Marvel’s Iron Man 3. Inspired I learnt about an upcoming powerful technology, AI. Immediately, I developed huge interest for Machine Learning and Artificial Neural Networks.  Months later, I developed an intelligent Device Driver, I called FlashIN. My passion for AI is so huge. I want to use AI for good. AI isn’t a destructive technology, but only in the wrong hands.

 “I like computer and video games and when I was seven I hacked and patched in-app purchases, and online game accounts. I was a little menace. Some people tried to lead me into cyber-crime but I refused. Knowing my capacity, I would rather become a white-hat hacker than a black. I swore it’s something I’ll never put my hands into. I’m so passionate about technology, AI and science. Imagine a world that is tech driven, that makes AI its means of economic stability and growth!

“Just a year after, my Windows app, a text-editing tool for programming languages, was accepted and placed in the windows store! I have contributed to Cogntive Computing, and provided solutions by integrating Quantum Computing. This I did at twelve. As a technology advisor, I have advised lots of business owners, technology entrepreneurs, and company owners, on what to integrate in their company at just twelve.

“Discovering IBM Watson, and mostly AI, was one of the best thing that happened to me. My passion drives me into doing unimaginable and esoteric things. I want to teach over 1 million Nigerians coding for free! I will and can as long as I get support!

“I have attended technology driven conferences, at the same time, delivered speeches, advice, to intellectuals and professionals. I am an Algorithmist, and I try my best to enhance various sectors of the economy through AI. Today know about 25 programming languages, AI, Neural Network architecture. I know it sound surprising! AI is a technology that will give women the chance to explore their full potential. I’m trying to work with schools, to make sure girls can code and I am a host of iGirlzCode Online.

“I am determined and aim towards applying my vast knowledge on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to augment various sectors and concepts such as healthcare and finance. I love to speak and share knowledge and projects to the open-source community and other developers.”

At Treasure House Montessori School, Abuja where he had his primary education and first contact with computer tutorials, he ended up being the school valedictorian; graduating as the highest average scorer.

Using his mother’s data to power these endeavours on his laptop and in fact, on her phone before the laptop arrived, Gerald has also began training women in matters related to technology, and supporting them online. He hopes to work his way up his way to become a champion for Cloud at IBM and Twilio’s Hall of Doers.

Currently, he is working on a project towards heath care, applying nanotechnology and electroencephalograms, for disabled and quadriplegic people. Another is a software that uses machine learning to analyse one’s state of mind.

Hopefully, the world will celebrate Gerald Maduabuchi Ogbonnaya in a short while.