Another Boring Learning Question For You…

Hi all. Currently a cyber analyst who’s developing an interest in AI/ML, considering AI engineering as a potential career move in the future. It all started by making a few LORAs for Stable Diffusion, which was enjoyable, and that sort of kicked the interest off for me. I’m currently trying to pick the best path for myself, I’m torn between going for certs (expensive), alongside actually learning things myself through one of the many learning paths out there and building projects. I’ve got a few cool ideas for music practice-related chatbots which would definitely work as a project, and would be fun to make, importantly.

Which is the best path? I’ve seen a mixture of self-learning/projects and certs recommended, but I don’t want to commit to expensive certs if projects are more than sufficient to land a role in the future, whenever that may be. Likewise, I don’t want to neglect certifications if the benefit is actually tangible and will help me in the future (the importance of certs is often really overblown in the cyber world and experience and portfolio work is much more desirable, hence my scepticism!) I’m not interested in doing a boot camp, I did one after uni when I moved from Music to Cyber, and it was predatory garbage, and most of the AI ones seem to employ the same marketing tricks… « Do this six month course and earn six figures! »