Uber’s CTO is speaking at StrictlyVC SF — here’s why that matters

StrictlyVC San Francisco is shaping up to be one of those events where you actually want to show up early. The TechCrunch-hosted affair lands on April 30 at the Sentro Filipino Cultural Center, and the speaker list keeps getting better.

The latest addition: Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga.

Now, I’ve sat through plenty of CTO keynotes that are basically polished corporate slide decks. But Neppalli Naga is worth paying attention to because Uber operates at a scale most companies can only dream of — and they’ve been quietly doing interesting things with AI for years, not just since the ChatGPT hype cycle.

Uber’s AI story isn’t about chatbots. It’s about matching millions of riders with drivers in real time, predicting demand, optimizing routes, and pricing dynamically. That’s machine learning in the trenches, not in a demo environment. When Neppalli Naga talks about “operating at scale in the age of AI,” he’s not being abstract.

He’ll be joining a lineup that was already stacked before this announcement. The event has been pulling in heavy hitters from across venture capital and tech, so this adds some serious engineering credibility to the mix.

What I’m curious to hear is how Uber balances AI-driven decision making with the messy reality of human behavior — drivers canceling, traffic jams, surge pricing backlash. That’s the kind of practical insight that doesn’t make it into press releases.

If you’re in the Bay Area and care about how AI actually works when millions of people depend on it daily, this is one of those rare sessions that might deliver more than theory. April 30 at Sentro Filipino Cultural Center. Doors open early, and with a lineup this good, I wouldn’t test the ‘fashionably late’ approach.