High Signal: Data Science | Career | AI

Episode 7: What Lies Beyond Machine Learning and AI: Decision Systems and the Future of Data Teams


Listen Later

In this episode of High Signal, Chris Wiggins—Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times, Professor at Columbia University, and co-author of How Data Happened—shares how organizations can move beyond prediction to actionable decision systems. Drawing on his work at The New York Times and in academia, Chris explains how to scale data teams, optimize systems, and align data science with organizational impact.

Key topics from the conversation include:

• From Prediction to Prescription: Why organizations need to focus on interventions that drive outcomes, illustrated with insights like, “Imagine a hospital prescribing treatments instead of just diagnosing conditions.”
• The AI Hierarchy of Needs: Foundational practices, such as data logging and engineering, that enable advanced machine learning and AI.
• Personalization and Optimization: How reinforcement learning and exploration-exploitation methods help optimize KPIs and adapt to user context.
• Scaling Data Teams: Strategies for attracting and retaining talent by emphasizing autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
• Empathy as a Data Science Skill: The importance of collaborating with other teams and understanding their goals to drive adoption and success.

🎧 Tune in to learn how to build decision systems, integrate causality into workflows, and develop scalable data science teams for real-world impact.

You can find more on our website: https://high-signal.delphina.ai/

LINKS

  • Chris Wiggins' Website
  • Chris Wiggins on LinkedIn
  • How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
  • The AI Hierarchy of Needs by Monica Rogati
  • The Book of Why by Judea Pearl
  • ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    High Signal: Data Science | Career | AIBy Delphina

    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    18 ratings


    More shows like High Signal: Data Science | Career | AI

    View all
    Talk Python To Me by Michael Kennedy

    Talk Python To Me

    588 Listeners

    The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence) by Sam Charrington

    The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence)

    434 Listeners

    Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn by Jon Krohn

    Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn

    302 Listeners

    Data Engineering Podcast by Tobias Macey

    Data Engineering Podcast

    146 Listeners

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast

    232 Listeners

    Practical AI by Practical AI LLC

    Practical AI

    210 Listeners

    Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) by Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

    Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

    89 Listeners

    Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

    Dwarkesh Podcast

    489 Listeners

    Hard Fork by The New York Times

    Hard Fork

    5,479 Listeners

    Vanishing Gradients by Hugo Bowne-Anderson

    Vanishing Gradients

    11 Listeners

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by swyx + Alessio

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

    97 Listeners

    AI and I by Dan Shipper

    AI and I

    37 Listeners

    Training Data by Sequoia Capital

    Training Data

    41 Listeners

    The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz

    The Pragmatic Engineer

    64 Listeners

    OpenAI Podcast by OpenAI

    OpenAI Podcast

    52 Listeners