In India, there’s only one golden dream for anyone wanting to do engineering: clearing the IIT-JEE exam and securing a seat at an IIT. Niki Parmar set out with a similar goal, but destiny was writing a completely different story for her.
Born into a lower middle class family in Pune, young Niki wasn’t just interested in computers; she was fascinated by how they worked behind the screens. Driven by curiosity, she taught herself to code, and spent hours experimenting on her own.
The IIT-JEE Heartbreak
Not getting into an IIT was a setback, but Niki refused to let it define her. Choosing to move forward, she took admission at the Pune Institute of Computer Technology, completely unaware of the journey that lay ahead.
In 2010, she signed up for an artificial intelligence course, at a time when AI was barely talked about. Long before GPT, Gemini, or Claude started making headlines, Niki was already captivated by the technology. She taught herself everything, from learning concepts to applying them for building projects.
The American Dream
After earning her bachelor’s degree in 2012, Niki moved to the United States to pursue a Master’s in Computer Science at the University of Southern California.
She had arranged an education loan and thought her path was clear. However her excitement soon turned into worry when she got to know that the bank refused to approve her loan. She didn’t know where to go, and what to do.
Back at home, her father started arranging funds so Niki could continue her studies. Reflecting on this time in an interview with NDTV, Niki shared that her father made sacrifices for her education that he might never have made for himself.
Eventually, everything fell into place. A professor funded her second year of Master’s studies, and an internship allowed her to repay the family’s debt even before she graduated in 2015.
The Google Breakthrough
Niki joined Google Research in the year 2015, just after graduating college. As being the youngest and the only one without a PhD, the environment was initially intimidating.
Yet, Niki describes it as an incredible experience where everyone was trying to push the limits of what AI could do.
Attention is All You Need
Niki’s curiosity led her to co-author one of the most groundbreaking papers in modern computer science: “Attention is all you need”, published in 2017. This paper introduced the transformer architecture that fundamentally changed how AI works. Today, virtually every major LLM relies on this core architecture.
Subsequent Ventures
After nearly 6 years at Google, Niki co-founded Adept, developing intelligent AI models designed to take actions with tools in browsers, on behalf of users.
She later co-founded Essential AI, focusing on making frontier AI models more accessible through open source platforms.
Today, she serves as a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic, where she leads reinforcement learning research on complex exploration tasks.
Curiosity Takes You Places
Niki Parmar’s story is a testament to how far relentless curiosity can take you. She frequently mentions that her accomplishments were made possible by her mother’s unwavering encouragement to pursue her dreams, a freedom her mother never had the opportunity to enjoy herself.
Muskan Singh
