Fireside Chat: Level Up Your Intelligence #SFTechWeek
🌿 About Event
A SF Tech Week fireside chat with Vinitra from Scholé AI × Kevin from Bryel AI (YCF26) about what it actually takes to learn, build, and work with AI as it keeps changing.
At Scholé, we spend our time thinking about how people keep up with AI: what’s worth learning, how to learn it by building something real, and how to develop critical thinking that lasts longer than the latest tool.
At Bryel, the question is how companies can own their own intelligence: how to turn internal knowledge and expertise into models they control, and when that’s worth doing.
We’ll compare notes from what we’re building, including:
How we decide which new models and tools deserve our time.
When to use an existing model, when to customize one, and what that decision looks like in practice.
What it takes to get expertise out of someone’s head and into a system others can use.
How to tell whether people are getting better at their work, or just getting better-looking outputs.
What we’ve tried, what hasn’t worked, and what we’re still figuring out.
Come with something you’re working on, a decision you’re stuck on, or a question you haven’t had a chance to ask. We’ll leave plenty of room for discussion.
🕰 Flow / Schedule
Arrival + mingling
Fireside chat with Vinitra and Kevin
Open questions + discussion
Closing + more time to connect
👥 Facilitators
Vinitra Swamy — Co-founder, Scholé AI
Vinitra spends her time thinking about how people learn AI by building something real, and how to develop judgment that lasts longer than the latest tool. She’s teaching faculty for Harvard’s AI Intensives, an award-winning researcher on AI for education, a Stanford “Rising Star in Data Science,” and formerly at Microsoft AI.
Kevin — Founder, Bryel AI
Kevin explores how companies can turn their own knowledge and expertise into models they control, and when that’s worth doing. He’s the founder of Bryel (YC W26), teaches UC Berkeley’s latest post-training AI course, and previously led the post-training team at Apple for Siri.
Both Vini and Kevin used to teach data science at Berkeley as lecturers! #GoBears
💫 Who This Is For
Builders, founders, educators, and anyone figuring out how to learn, build, or work with AI as it keeps changing. Whether you’re choosing tools for your team, experimenting with models, or wondering what’s actually worth learning next, come join the conversation.
🎒 What to Bring
Something you’re working on, a decision you’re stuck on, or a question you haven’t had a chance to ask. Curiosity is plenty, too. :)
🏛 About The Commons
The Commons is a community-based "Fourth Place" that catalyzes each member's path to authenticity, full self-expression, and aliveness — rooted in the belief that community is essential to that journey. Located in the heart of San Francisco, we are redefining what it means to gather, work, and connect. By day, we're a playful co-working space; by night, a vibrant community meeting house.
🚪 Arrival Info
The Commons is located at 550 Laguna St, San Francisco (corner of Hayes & Laguna).
Enter via the stairway under The Commons sign at the basement level.