In that same essay I think he also mentioned you can't know fully how good a hacker is until you've worked with them. I still agree that the best developers will be able to see talent.
What I would like is to be around and ideally involved in new ideas, research, and discovery. Even if that means getting coffee and hours inside during the summer.
As a high school student, I'm not sure what I can offer any ideas there?
I also get the impression from your post that I need to get more specific and engage graduate students that are working on projects. Should I possibly be asking the graduate students to work with them as opposed to their professor?
Firstly, please identify areas of your interest. Even a bit broader area is alright to begin with
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Secondly, you can start out reading technical publications in those areas. Getting in to the habit of reading research papers takes time. Slowly you have to reach a stage to remove fluff from the paper and draw out the essence in ~10 minutes. It will also help make your mind fertile for new ideas.
Thirdly, graduate students, particularly PhD students, are helpful and can guide you. Remember, some of them are preparing for a future in academics. So, they are tuned in to guiding new students. But you need to do your work prior to approaching them. I also feel, you'll get more returns for your invested time if you meet PhD students.
I'd like to get involved in AI and I have already found a research group at this university along with a list of graduate students working on projects and their professor.
I'll begin reading through some of their research and getting used to reading papers as you suggested. Should I go through their professor to get to the students or contact them directly?
Professors don't do much of the actual research work themselves. They are the ideas person, giving their grad students direction, and applying to grants to fund them.
So, what will probably happen is that they will direct you to one of their students, if they think you can give him a hand on his project.
Are you looking for a summer internship kind of thing?
Anyways, just wanted to give you a heads up. Do go ahead and ask! And if one prof isn't interested, ask another one. All profs are quite different. If you know someone in the department (grad or undergrad student), you could ask them for suggestions as to which prof would be open to having a HS level intern.
As T-A suggested, arXiv is a great source, especially with the frustration over the profiteering of the publishing industry, although you always have to be aware that arXiv papers are not peer-reviewed.
