The Ultimate Artificial Intelligence Christmas Gift Ideas List 2018
And suddenly, it is Christmas. As every year, it comes as a total surprise to all of us, leaving us unprepared. What present for whom? Is this a unique and original Christmas gift? How much is appropriate to spend?
So you fire up Google and enter things like “gifts for men”, “Christmas present ideas” or “what to get my nerd boyfriend”, and you find - nothing.
I’ll make this easy for you: During the year, I’ve often mentioned gimmicks, products, books on my AI Weekender (if you are not yet a member: please fulfill MY Christmas wish and join!). Out of that, I’ve compiled a list of cool Christmas gift ideas you can give to different kinds of people - as long as they have an interest in technology. So depending on who that person is and what she or he does, you will find exactly one Christmas present idea you can go and get her or him. And the best thing: you can order everything online from the cozy comfort of your home (through my Amazon Partnernet links below which I use to make some money to buy my own Christmas presents)!
Beware, the ultimate Artificial Intelligence Christmas Gift Ideas List:
The aspiring corporate manager
Persona: He or she is between 30 and 50 years old and works in a management position in a bigger corporation. She has heard a lot recently about Artificial Intelligence and is curious, but doesn’t really know where to start to learn a thing or two.
Gift idea: The book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI as an ebook or audio book. She obviously doesn’t have too much time and is not that much into technology. But it’s all around her, everybody is talking about it - what’s that all about? How can it help? Is my job safe or do I need to worry? On her way to work in her car or on the train, she can listen to it and educate herself a little about the topic.
The nerdy boyfriend
Persona: The nerdy boyfriend comes in every age. He loves to fiddle with electronics, software, gadgets. He loves trying out new things and to indulge himself into something for hours.
Gift idea: Google AIY Kit. The kit includes a little computer called a Raspberry Pi and several things to build your own Artificial Intelligence voice agent - all on Google Cloud! He can build Artificial Intelligence, get to know technology, connect it to the internet and generally dive into it for hours or even days. It’s perfect.
The avid practitioner
Persona: He works at that one big company as a data scientist. He’s the one person setting up a chatbot for a client’s website. He does AI for a living, has to know the latest trends, maybe even contributes to its advancement by programing.
Gift idea: A subscription to The MIT Technology Review. The Technology Review was founded in 1899 and remade two times (1998 and 2005). It focuses on new technology and how it is commercialized: lots of interesting and investigative stories and articles.
The eager student
Persona: She loves learning new things, online courses and working on herself. She craves knowledge and just can’t stop to soak up information about new technology. She reads loads of articles and books, Flipboard is one of her most used apps.
Gift idea: An online course or a whole Nanodegree. A nanodegree needs constant work on a topic and can be quite demanding. But if the target of your gift is very dedicated, it’s definitely worth the money - and she’ll love it. For everybody else, there is lots of simpler (but still powerful!) courses on udemy.
The dreamer
Persona: He reads all the articles, he talks about how we will be able to plug ourselves into the matrix one day, he sketches cybernetic arms and companion robots into his notebook. The dreamer dives into books and movies - get him something to feed into this!
Gift idea: A classic cyberpunk and AI novel: Go for Neuromancer. Trust me - he will start reading it on Christmas eve and not let go off it before he’s finished.
The tech-savvy girlfriend
Persona: She’s smart, she likes gadgets and she listens to you go on and on about deep learning and how this will change the world. Go get her something awesome!
Gift idea: Amazon Echo - and YOU set it up! The smart speaker is AI incarnate and has lots and lots of features. And you can even build on that with smart lightbulbs next year!
The AI Freak
Persona: She is an expert in Tensorflow. She commits to the Keras repository. She talks about conscious machines. Her shirt displays an Atari logo.
Gift idea: Buying someone something for their passion is hard. Ever tried gifting shoes to a runner? Or a wine to a professional Connoisseur? But for a someone that deep into the digital world, my suggestion would be very analog: a notebook. Go for a Moleskine, XLarge, squared. It has space for all her ideas, problems, solutions. Writing something down is such a natural process that it helps focusing and getting things done.
Yes, I’ve skipped mom and dad. But since this list is build on personas and not on roles, I guess you have to decide whether they fall into any of these categories (your mom maybe would like an Amazon Echo? Or your dad a DYI AI kit?). In the end, it’s all about what your SO or family member enjoys - or maybe you yourself! I wish you all a merry Christmas and may your gifts be well received!
