# Yannic Kilcher

> YouTuber and machine learning expert

**Wikidata**: [Q121493695](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q121493695)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/yannic-kilcher

## Summary
Yannic Kilcher is a Swiss YouTuber and machine learning expert who creates educational machine-learning content and leads open-source AI work. He is the founder of the Open Assistant project and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in artificial intelligence from ETH Zurich.

## Biography
- Born: [date and place not provided]
- Nationality: Switzerland
- Education: Doctor of Philosophy (artificial intelligence), ETH Zurich (2016–2021)
- Known for: Founder of Open Assistant and creator of the YannicKilcher YouTube channel explaining machine learning research
- Employer(s): ETH Zurich (affiliation), LAION (affiliation), Open Assistant (founder); listed as chief technology officer and founder on Crunchbase
- Field(s): Machine learning; artificial intelligence; open-source software

## Contributions
Yannic Kilcher founded the open-source Open Assistant project, an open-source AI chatbot initiative whose public inception is documented in April 2023 (Open Assistant release blog dated 2023-04-15). He runs the YannicKilcher YouTube channel (channel established 2013-11-18) that explains and summarizes machine learning research; the channel had 304,000 followers and 17,673,842 cumulative video views as of 2025-11-27. Kilcher completed a Doctor of Philosophy in artificial intelligence at ETH Zurich in 2021 and is affiliated with ETH Zurich and with LAION. He is listed as chief technology officer and founder on Crunchbase for his entrepreneurial activities. Kilcher has an academic presence under multiple author and profile identifiers (Google Scholar T3Ji6P4AAAAJ, Semantic Scholar 3442443, dblp 184/2019, OpenReview Yannic_Kilcher1, ACM DL 99659216997), indicating peer-reviewed and conference contributions in machine learning research. He has appeared as presenter and interviewee on Machine Learning Street Talk. Kilcher also contributes to open-source software communities and maintains public developer accounts (GitHub: yk; Hugging Face: ykilcher).

## FAQs
### Q: Who is Yannic Kilcher?
A: Yannic Kilcher is a Swiss YouTuber and machine learning expert, founder of the Open Assistant open-source chatbot project, and a Doctor of Philosophy in artificial intelligence from ETH Zurich.

### Q: What is Open Assistant and what is Kilcher's role?
A: Open Assistant is an open-source AI chatbot project publicly released in April 2023. Yannic Kilcher is listed as a founder of Open Assistant and is affiliated with the project.

### Q: Is Yannic Kilcher affiliated with ETH Zurich?
A: Yes. Kilcher earned his PhD in artificial intelligence at ETH Zurich (2016–2021) and is listed with an affiliation to ETH Zurich.

### Q: What public platforms does he use to share work?
A: He runs the YannicKilcher YouTube channel (established 2013-11-18), and maintains accounts on Twitter (ykilcher), GitHub (yk), Hugging Face (ykilcher), and other social platforms.

## Why They Matter
Yannic Kilcher serves as a bridge between academic machine learning research and a broad technical audience through video explainers and public-facing projects. His YouTube channel provides accessible breakdowns of recent machine-learning papers and developments, amassing several hundred thousand subscribers and millions of views, which helps disseminate complex research to practitioners, students, and engineers. As founder of Open Assistant, Kilcher has a visible role in the open-source AI movement, aligning with organizations such as LAION and contributing to projects that prioritize community-driven models and tools. His academic credentials (PhD in artificial intelligence from ETH Zurich) and multiple author/profile identifiers demonstrate active participation in scholarly discourse. Without his combination of public communication, open-source leadership, and academic background, there would be fewer high-profile channels connecting cutting-edge ML research with open-source development and broad public audiences.

## Notable For
- Founder of Open Assistant, an open-source AI chatbot project (public inception referenced 2023-04-15).
- Creator and presenter of the YannicKilcher YouTube channel (channel established 2013-11-18) with hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views (304,000 followers and 17,673,842 views as of 2025-11-27).
- Doctor of Philosophy in artificial intelligence from ETH Zurich (2016–2021).
- Affiliations with ETH Zurich and LAION; listed as chief technology officer and founder on Crunchbase.
- Contributor and presenter on Machine Learning Street Talk (presenter/interviewee).

## Body
### Education and academic credentials
- Completed Doctor of Philosophy in artificial intelligence at ETH Zurich; doctoral period listed 2016–2021.
- Holds academic author and profile identifiers: Google Scholar (T3Ji6P4AAAAJ), Semantic Scholar (3442443), dblp (184/2019), OpenReview (Yannic_Kilcher1), ACM Digital Library (99659216997).

### Open-source and project leadership
- Founder of Open Assistant, an open-source AI chatbot initiative; the project's public release is documented on 2023-04-15.
- Affiliated with LAION and listed as a founder on Open Assistant team listings.

### Public communication and media
- Runs the YannicKilcher YouTube channel (channel id UCZHmQk67mSJgfCCTn7xBfew), started 2013-11-18.
- Reported social metrics: 304,000 followers on YouTube and 17,673,842 cumulative video views as of 2025-11-27.
- Contributed to Machine Learning Street Talk as presenter and interviewee.

### Professional roles and affiliations
- Listed occupations: YouTuber, data scientist, podcaster, presenter, open-source developer; also listed as chief technology officer and founder on Crunchbase.
- Affiliations include ETH Zurich (personal page and affiliation) and LAION.
- Residence and work location: Zurich, Switzerland.

### Online presence and contact
- Website: https://www.ykilcher.com/
- ETH Zurich profile: https://ml.inf.ethz.ch/people/person-detail.html?persid=201857
- Twitter: @ykilcher (account active since 2010-07)
- GitHub: yk
- Hugging Face: ykilcher
- Email addresses listed publicly: info@ykilcher.com and yannic.kilcher@inf.ethz.ch

### Languages
- German and English.

## Schema Markup
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## References

1. [Source](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykilcher/)
2. [Source](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/yannic-kilcher)
3. [Source](https://open-assistant.io/team)
4. [Source](https://www.ykilcher.com/)
5. [Source](https://ml.inf.ethz.ch/people/person-detail.html?persid=201857)
6. YouTube API