Collin Lowenburg, an engineer and hackathon organizer, remembers when Turcios first burst onto the circuit. Cutting a far different shape than the clean-cut polo-wearing Stanford students, he had a booming voice, outgoing demeanor, and emo-kid, cyber-punk street style. Instead of vigorously coding until the deadline, he finished his projects hours early by getting AI to do the technical work for him. “I didn’t write a single line of code,” Turcios said of his first hackathon where he prompted ChatGPT using plain English to generate a program that can convert any song into a lo-fi version. When the organizers announced Turcios had won second place, he screamed in celebration. “Not a single person there knew who the fuck I was, but it was my turning point,” said Turcios. “I realized that I could compete with people who have degrees and fancy jobs.” Turcios’ upbringing mirrors his unconventional career. He grew up in Missouri to parents who worked in an international circus, taming bears and lions. Instead of going to college, Turcios returned to his family’s roving roots and became a professional Yu-Gi-Oh! player. “It was a very weird, weird lifestyle,” said Turcios, who roadtripped and couchsurfed across the country to play the Japanese trading-card game. “I would go to special high-tier events just so I could play against the best players.” Turcios got so good that other conference attendees paid him hundreds of dollars to sign their cards. But two years in, Turcios grew bored of the game and his nomadic existence, so he followed his girlfriend to San Francisco in 2019. He worked odd jobs and eventually started a metaverse infrastructure company right as ChatGPT was released to the public in 2022. Much to Turcios’ disappointment, the engineers he worked with had no interest in experimenting with AI.
First seen: 2025-07-06 20:24
Last seen: 2025-07-06 20:24