At age five, Tanmay watched as his computer programmer father, Puneet Bakshi, punched code into his machine with a thirst to learn how. Mr. Bakshi later taught his curious son how to program.
“It was so fascinating to me how computers could really do anything,” Tanmay told CNBC. “I wanted to know what goes on behind the back-end and see how you can control the computers and tell them what to do.”
By the time he turned seven, Tanmay created a YouTube page where he taught other kids how to code. He later built his first iOS app, which has been accepted by the Apple store.
Now, Tanmay is tackling AI.
He explained how he stumbled upon IBM when he was 11. A documentary about the “question answering” machine from IBM Watson playing on the game show Jeopardy intrigued him and sparked an interest in AI.
While later playing with the IBM service Document Conversion, Tanmay found a bug and posted his findings on a programming website, as well as his personal Twitter. Some IBM employees reached out to the young computer scientist and he’s been collaborating with the tech giant ever since.
Though Tanmay isn’t paid by IBM, he’s been offered a number of speaking opportunities and some IBMers — including chief technology officer Rob High — mentor him.
What may be most intriguing about the kid-AI master is that his latest work narrows in on one of the most complex industries in the U.S. — healthcare. Tanmay is currently working on a project called “Cognitive Story” that aims to help patients who cannot speak communicate more effectively. Specifically, he’s helping develop deep learning algorithms that would understand a quadriplegic patient’s electroencephalography brain waves and convert them to natural language.
“[AI] is truly a very useful professional tool for doctors that can augment and save so many lives because of the fact that [the medical profession] is so data dependent,” Tanmay told CNBC.
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