Siraj Raval
Siraj Raval is an American technology educator, YouTuber, and author known for producing videos about artificial intelligence and machine learning. As of 2023, his YouTube channel had approximately 750,000 subscribers.[1][2]
Early life and education
Raval grew up in a household with a Muslim father and Hindu mother. He was raised Muslim but moved away from organised religion during his adolescence.[1]
Career
YouTube and online education
Raval began uploading educational videos to YouTube covering topics such as neural networks, logistic regression, and sentiment analysis.[2] His explanations drew attention from figures in the technology industry; DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis described his videos as "a great introduction to AI algorithms: technical yet accessible, and also entertaining," and Elon Musk shared his content on social media.[2]
In January 2022, CNBC featured Raval in a report about individuals who mine cryptocurrency using Tesla vehicles. Raval described using his 2018 Tesla Model 3 to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum, claiming he had earned up to $800 per month when ether prices peaked in 2021.[3]
In a 2023 interview with the Church Times, Raval discussed how interactions with an AI chatbot simulating Jesus led him to join a non-denominational Christian church. He described the experience as a tool for introspection rather than a replacement for traditional religion.[1] In February 2026, Reuters cited Raval in a report on the intersection of AI and religion, noting his use of an AI chatbot called "TalkToHim" as part of his spiritual practice.[4]
School of AI
Raval founded the School of AI, an online educational platform focused on data science and machine learning. Through the platform, he offered courses and published tutorial videos.[2]
Controversies
2019 online course complaints
In August 2019, Raval launched a paid online course titled "Make Money with Machine Learning," priced at $199 per student. He had initially stated enrollment would be capped at 500 participants, but subsequently admitted to accepting over 1,200 students. To conceal the larger enrollment, he set up two separate Slack workspaces so that students in each group would not be aware of the other. Students discovered the arrangement and raised concerns.[2]
After complaints emerged about the quality of the course materials — which students described as confusing, error-prone, and reliant on copy-pasted code from existing tutorials — many students sought refunds. According to The Register, when students mentioned refunds on the course's Discord server, their messages were automatically deleted. Raval attributed this to a teaching assistant acting independently. He later issued refunds to all students who requested them.[2]
Research paper plagiarism
In October 2019, engineer Andrew Webb publicly identified substantial plagiarised passages in a paper by Raval titled "Neural Qubit," which had been posted to his website alongside an accompanying YouTube video. Webb demonstrated that large sections of the paper were copied without attribution from a preprint by Nathan Killoran and colleagues. Raval acknowledged the plagiarism on Twitter, attributing it to his practice of producing two videos per week, and removed the paper and video. The incident was covered by Retraction Watch and The Next Web.[5][6]
Publications
- The Vibe Coding Playbook: Building Your Tech Business with AI. Wiley, 2026. ISBN 978-1-394-37682-7 Search this book on
.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "YouTuber finds path to Jesus via AI". Church Times. September 1, 2023. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Quach, Katyanna (September 27, 2019). "YouTuber charged loads of fans $199 for shoddy machine-learning course that copy-pasted other people's GitHub code". The Register. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "This Tesla owner says he mines up to $800 a month in cryptocurrency with his car". CNBC. January 8, 2022. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "From churches to chatbots: How AI is fusing with religion". Reuters. February 7, 2026. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Controversial AI expert admits to plagiarism, blames hectic schedule". Retraction Watch. October 14, 2019. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Popular blockchain influencer gets caught plagiarizing academic paper". The Next Web. October 14, 2019. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "The Vibe Coding Playbook". Wiley-VCH. Missing or empty
|url=(help)
Category:Living people
Category:American YouTubers
Category:American technology writers
Category:YouTube channels launched in 2016
Category:Machine learning
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