I bet they feel so, so silly. A quick bit of reflection might reveal sarcasm.

I'll live up to my username and be terribly brave with a silly rhetorical question: why are we hearing about him through Simon? Don't answer, remember. Rhetorical. All the way up and down.

Andrej is an extremely effective communicator and educator. But I don't agree that he is one of the most significant AI pioneers in history. His research contributions are significant but not exceptional compared to other folks around him at the time. He got famous for free online courses, not his research. His work at Tesla was not exactly a rousing success.

Today I see him as a major influence in how people, especially tech people, think about AI tools. That's valuable. But I don't really think it makes him a pioneer.