Humans
behind AI
Sanjay Hariharan
Principal Data Scientist
New York, NY
Sanjay Hariharan
Principal Data Scientist
New York, NY
My journey into AI started with a TI-89 calculator.
I can trace my love of technology right back to my school days. It all started with a TI-89 calculator that could create graphs and solve tricky equations. You could also play fun games on it. My approach to AI is built on those early foundations of work and play. Education is in my DNA; inherited no doubt from my immigrant parents who saw it as a stepping stone to success and stability. I volunteer at a homework club at the Brooklyn Central Library where kids come for help with projects they’re struggling with. It’s rewarding to help them get to grips with a subject, and I usually learn something along the way too.
I spend my time developing some of the most advanced technology humans have ever created. It’s strange, but I feel I can plot a line that runs right back to the earlier tech I used in my school days. That’s where my journey into AI probably started.
My high school was in the suburbs of Milwaukee. I always loved math—my brain is wired that way—and technology augmented my skills. I still have my old TI-89, one of the smartest calculators ever made. It would solve complex equations and draw graphs to illustrate solutions. I didn’t understand what was going on under the hood, but I knew it helped me to find answers to complicated problems.
That’s the way to think about the AI and machine learning coming into our lives now. I see AI as a partner. It’s important to remember the intelligence in AI comes from humans, and we’ve embedded that intelligence into accessible technology that will allow us all to achieve so much more.
Sharing my love of learning in a way that opens up opportunities for others is the best feeling in the world.
I’m the son of Indian immigrants. There was certainly a focus on doing your best in my family, but my parents never pushed me too hard. If there was pressure, I put it on myself because I wanted to do well in what was a very competitive and high-achieving school environment.
I live in Brooklyn now. I feel fortunate that education opened so many opportunities for me, and I know not everyone in New York City gets the same chances, so I try to help. I volunteer during the school year with a program called Homework Helpers at the Brooklyn Central Library, which is in my neighborhood. I help kids aged between 10 and 17 with algebra, geometry, and sometimes with writing assignments in non-math subjects. It’s one of the most rewarding things I do.
Sharing my love of learning in a way that opens up opportunities for others is the best feeling in the world. Volunteering also helps me be of service to my community.
The arrival of generative AI means we’ll need to answer some big questions about how students learn in the future. Right at the outset we need to ensure there is equitable access to AI-assisted learning. I’m focused on the longer play, too. I believe AI could democratize education. The technology we are developing now has vast potential to elevate and increase the quality and breadth of education for students.
I’m not just talking about school children, we’re all students for life now. One of the things that drew me to McKinsey was the firm’s culture of lifelong learning. I mentor a group of young data scientists here, and I’m learning so much through my work in healthcare.
The kids in school today won’t need the sort of calculator I relied on back in Milwaukee. I hope that AI will help them to learn deeper and faster than I ever could, and that the desire to keep learning stays with them for life.
Sanjay's photos were taken in New York, New York.
Sharing my love of learning in a way that opens up opportunities for others is the best feeling in the world.
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