Training Data · Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Dylan Patel, founder of SemiAnalysis, shared anecdotes from his childhood spent in his parents' family hotel and gas station business. He humorously described how he trained an early 'neural network' by observing customers to predict their cigarette choices, a formative experience that blended technology and business acumen.
“So, so, okay, so I grew up in like a small business. My parents had a hotel, we lived in the hotel, we ran our gas station.”
“So, you know, I joke a lot of times the first neural network I trained was racially and visually profiling people based on when they entered the gas station, which cigarette to pick.”
“But I grew up in family businesses, um, lived in a hotel. And, um, it all really goes back to when I was like, you know, it was my eighth birthday.”