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The Return of the Data Scientist – Shreya Shankar & Hamel Husain

Speaker(s): Shreya Shankar (AI Researcher, UC Berkeley); Hamel Husain (Founder, Parlance Labs)
Session: Interrupt 2026 · Day 2 (May 14) · ~3:30 PM PT (closing session)
Source: in-person audio recording, transcribed locally with Whisper large-v3.

Summary​

In the closing session, Shreya Shankar (UC Berkeley) and Hamel Husain (Parlance Labs) make the case for 'the return of the data scientist' — bringing a scientific, data-first mindset to building and evaluating AI systems. NOTE: this recording captured only the opening and closing of the talk plus the event wrap-up; most of the middle was not picked up by the stage audio, so the synthesis is partial. From what was captured, they reference an article about humans being 'used economically' by an AI lab to build substantial technology, and they close on the data-scientist mindset: experiment, measure, and try to improve — describing this as a distinct muscle. The central, repeated message is to 'always look at your data.' They mention tools/skills to help audit your evals to check if you're doing things correctly, and offer to share slides (via a QR code) and memes. The session also includes the official Interrupt 2026 event wrap-up, thanking attendees for two days, encouraging the post-event survey, and inviting everyone to the after party hosted by the sponsor.

Key Points​

  • Partial capture: only the talk's opening and closing plus the event wrap-up were recorded; the middle was largely not picked up by stage audio, so middle content is unavailable
  • Theme is 'the return of the data scientist' — applying a scientific mindset to AI systems: experiment, measure, and try to improve, framed as a distinct 'muscle'
  • Opening references an article about a lab that 'used humans economically for a few months to build a very substantial technology'
  • The most-emphasized takeaway: always look at your data
  • They mention having skills/tools to help audit your eval to check whether you're doing it correctly
  • Slides and memes were offered for sharing via a QR code
  • Closing remarks officially ended Interrupt 2026, thanking attendees for two days and inviting them to the after party hosted by sponsor 'Bookmist,' plus a request to fill out the post-event survey

Notable Quotes​

if you come away with something from this talk, always look at your data

And then you want to approach this whole thing with scientific mindset. You want to experiment, and then you want to measure and try to improve.

Alright, that marks the end of Interop 2026.

Full Transcript​

Show the full timestamped transcript (auto-generated; lightly cleaned)
[00:00] Closed captioning provided by the Amara.org community

[00:30] Okay, so about half the people. So if you haven't read this article, I highly recommend taking a
look. But what it's about is human-open AI, they've used humans economically for a few months to
build a very substantial technology. Thank you.

[16:00] Okay. you do your modern brain capabilities.

[16:33] And then you want to approach this whole thing with scientific mindset. You want to experiment, and
then you want to measure and try to improve. Like that muscle of being a data scientist is
different. We talked a lot today about a lot of different things. I have these skills to help you
audit your eval to see if you're doing anything correctly. But don't worry about writing this down,
unless you're a rick. But most importantly,

[17:03] if you come away with something from this talk, always look at your data. Now, there's one question
that everyone has anytime that Ray and I give a presentation. It's, where are the slides? And I
appreciate sharing the slides. So, you can get the slides by using this QR code. So we'll send you
the slides, and we'll also send you all the memes. Just like, a lot of memes. Thank you. Alright,
that marks the end of Interop 2026.

[17:57] We appreciate you spending two days with us, and we hope that you learned something new to take back
to your organization. We hope that you practiced that in your teams, and maybe one or two ambitious
ones you'll describe as a quick prototype for what will become a six-month platform project. The
conversation doesn't end there. Join us at the after party with our sponsor, the Bookmist, for more
great conversations and celebrations. While we're out there, fill out the post-event survey, and let
us know what you thought of Interop 2026.

[18:27] And if you're leaving, please drop off your badges and tickets. I'll see you all then. Welcome to
the Interop 2026 after party. We want to thank our sponsor, Bookmist. Make sure to visit Bookmist,
and all the sponsors on Michigan Street. Thank you for attending Interop 2026. We'll see you next
time.

[18:59] Thank you.