On May 22, the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society held two commencement ceremonies at the Greek Theatre to recognize more than 2,000 students graduating from the college with bachelor of arts degrees in computer science, data science and statistics.
Dean Jennifer Chayes opened the ceremonies by welcoming students, their families and guests. “This is an incredibly special day that our graduates and families have looked forward to for a long, long time,” she said.
“You have achieved an impressive feat, not only because you've completed a demanding curriculum, but also because you've done so during a time of historic change and challenge, and we know this has not been easy.”
In his address to the graduates, Michael I. Jordan outlined major challenges posed by the use of AI, including job displacement, increased inequality, the proliferation of fake AI-generated content, and the need for an overhaul of education. Jordan is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley.
“The idea that chatbots can entirely replace humans is a mirage and even dangerous. When a human wants a real connection, they need something other than fluent text,” said Jordan. “I believe that there will continue to be jobs in which the possibility of deep human-human connection is a critical part of the job. These will not be going away, and there will be even more of them in the future.”
Jordan said in the consideration of “whether we should keep our feet on the accelerator in data science and AI or we should slow down,” he believes we need to keep going. “The reason is simple, but non-trivial,” he said. “We are over 8 billion people on this planet… At the vast scale of the species, we need new technology and new kinds of markets to help us survive and thrive. It is elitism to assert that things are good enough as is.”
Considering the importance of human connection in an age of AI amid rapid change, Jordan told the graduates “you are entering a complex world. While it will be impossible to avoid being confused and even fearful at times, here are a few things that will help.
“First, take a deep breath. This era isn't like a gold rush, when you need to grab opportunities quickly or they will disappear. The opportunities and challenges will be there in a year, in five years and 10 years… Second, remember it's when people come together that amazing things happen. We tend to overemphasize the accomplishments of so-called geniuses and assign to such geniuses the accomplishments that are really the work of communities.”
Finding purpose in community
Sejal Sarda ’26 celebrated completing her degree in data science with a domain emphasis in urban science and minor in city and regional planning at the CDSS commencement. When she first arrived at Berkeley from Bahrain, Sarda intended to complete a degree in architecture but decided to change her major after taking the Data 8: Foundations of Data Science course.
“I never knew data science was a thing, until I came [to Berkeley],” she said. “It was such a profound feeling to find something that finally felt right for me.”
Sarda described why taking Data 140: Probability for Data Science was the most memorable part of her college experience. “It was one of the hardest classes I took, with long homework nights and project parties that somehow became where I found my closest friends,” she said. “But the real highlight was Professor Ani Adhikari. She taught probability in a way that made me fall in love with math again, not just by writing equations on the board but by explaining concepts through language, intuition and chalk.
“I still remember leaving lecture halls thinking about ideas from class the way people think about lines from Shakespeare. This changed the way I approached learning altogether: it showed me that rigor and beauty are not opposites, and that the best teaching can make even abstract mathematics feel deeply human.”
During her time at Berkeley, Sarda completed an internship with Amazon and worked with the MIT Transit Lab. Her next chapter includes working on a new startup to develop software that improves operations at car dealerships; Sarda and her co-founder were recently accepted into the Telora fellowship program.
Adapting to change
Daniel Wang ’26 not only completed his degree in computer science last week, he also revealed his alter ego as Oski, UC Berkeley’s official mascot, on social media.
Wang said his most memorable experience in his role as Oski was performing with the Cal Band at Carnegie Hall for a university event – his first time visiting New York City. After that trip, Wang went back to New York for an internship at Meta. He’ll soon join the company as a software engineer, after helping to teach Computer Science 61BL: Data Structures and Programming Methodology at Berkeley over the summer.
Wang shared his advice for Berkeley students: “The world is constantly changing. Being not only receptive but adaptive to this change will go so far. Take the time to learn about yourself. What is it that you want to do with your time here and beyond?”
