Can we please close academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46050/… before it ends up on the hot list with 30 answers and 100 votes.

@StrongBad I put in my vote but in this case it might be worth closing unilaterally

Would a question on how to attain a certain position be valid on academia?

I am very interested in Artificial Intelligence, and because of that I am educating myself towards that end, first with a bachelor in Software Engineering and then a masters of AI.

I would like to be on the edge of the field and perhaps research and help develop cutting edge AI.

This has led me to believe I should get a PhD, but I am unsure if that is true. Is it possible to do research without a PhD? And is that question suited for Academia?