E13: The Evolution of Data Science with DJ Patil

Today on the podcast, I interview DJ Patil, an entrepreneur, investor, scientist and leader in public policy. The former (and first) U.S. Chief Data Scientist, DJ wrote the book on being Data Driven (literally: O'Reilly Data Driven) and now puts his knowledge to work as General Partner of Great Point Ventures.

Highlights
00:29 - Intro
[1:50] - A discussion of the “Sexiest Job in History: Data Scientist” HBR article and how data science has changed since that article's publication
[5:00] - As far as we've come with Data Science, there are still problems - DJ shares some of the problems he sees that remain and how the Data Science community helps solve them
[5:43] - We dig into the emergence of the Data Engineer as a key role due to the requirements of usable data for Data Science (cleaning, prepping, etc.)
[9:00] - Data Challenges are culture problems moreso than deployment or process challenges - it's more about how to think in the proper way and get an entire organization on the same page
[10:10] - We discuss some of the difficulties of introducing ideas into the public sphere/government and how to create strategies to overcome them
[14:44] - How the Data Community helped via "crowdsourcing" with the national Covid response
[17:52] - Building off of the Covid response, DJ explains why he's begun to think of Data Scientists as a new kind of First Responder
[19:51] - How do we make use of data in organizations and how do startups compare to enterprises when it comes to making use of data?
[25:33] - Platform/Infrastructure shifts surrounding AI, LLMs, generative AI and how the industry is responding as well as how founders can better collaborate/respond
[27:37] - Quantum Round (Rapid-fire questions)

--

👉 Data Council 2025 brings together the brightest minds in AI and data, featuring no-BS technical talks from industry leaders at Databricks, Perplexity, Replit, Datadog, DeepMind, and more. Join us for 3 DAYS of 100+ deep-dive talks, workshops, and our signature office hours where you can meet your AI & data heroes in person.

Tickets are selling out fast, buy yours today!