---
title: "Experimentation, Causal Inference, and AI: Sean Taylor of OpenAI and VC Jesse Robbins at Data Council 2025"
description: I interviewed Sean Taylor of OpenAI ahead of Data Council 2025 on experimentation, causal inference, and why AI generates more questions that need empirical answers.
doc_version: "1.0"
last_updated: 2025-04-01
slug: data-council-2025-sean-taylor-openai-jesse-robbins-investor
outlet: Heavybit
author: Jesse Robbins and Sean Taylor
date: 2025-04-01
url: https://www.heavybit.com/library/article/data-council-2025-the-data-science-and-algorithms-track-with-sean-taylor-and-jesse-robbins
type: Article
excerpt: I interviewed Sean Taylor of OpenAI ahead of Data Council 2025 on experimentation, causal inference, and why AI generates more questions that need empirical answers.
quote: AI provides an opportunity to radically improve how we do things.
quoteAuthor: Jesse Robbins
tags:
  - AI Developer Tools
  - AI Infrastructure
  - Developer Platforms
  - Venture Capital
---

> "AI provides an opportunity to radically improve how we do things."
> — Jesse Robbins

I sat down with Sean Taylor of OpenAI at Heavybit to preview the Data Science and Algorithms track for Data Council 2025. Our conversation focused on experimentation, causal inference, and the practical frameworks data teams use to drive product and business decisions.

We covered the featured speakers: Hadley Wickham on generative AI in data science workflows, Timothy Chan of Statsig on experimentation at scale, Joe Powers of Intuit on Bayesian A/B testing, and Bryan Bischof of Hex on ML engineering. I framed the conference as a rare opportunity for isolated data science practitioners to validate their work by "peeking over each other's shoulders."

## Also Mentioned

- [Jesse Robbins](https://jesserobbins.com/) (person)
- [Sean Taylor](https://openai.com/index/sean-taylor/) (person)
- [OpenAI](https://openai.com) (company)
- [Data Council](https://www.datacouncil.ai) (company)
- [Hadley Wickham](https://hadley.nz/) (person)
- [Timothy Chan](https://www.datacouncil.ai/speakers/timothy-chan) (person)
- [Joe Powers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-t-powers/) (person)
- [Bryan Bischof](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-bischof) (person)
- [Heavybit](https://www.heavybit.com/) (company)

## Sitemap

See [sitemap.md](https://jesserobbins.com/sitemap.md) for the full list of pages on this site.