Suppose you know who the hiring manager is and you watch all his youtube videos of him giving talks at CS conferences. Wouldn’t it be creepy to quote him when answering a question from him? “Why use model X for predictive analytics?” “Well, as you stated in your talk at NeuroIPS in 2019, the reason is …”. Is that impressive / flattering or scary enough to cause a no hire?
I think this depends on the person…it could be good or creepy
It's NeurIPS btw.
Depends
Cool
I would think it is a big plus if you really have related knowledge and can provide critical feedback in addition referring to his/her original answer.
You don't have to make such a thing of it. If something relevant comes up, you can be like "ok, this is funny, but I actually remember a talk you gave." Don't be weirdly specific, keep it casual and they will probably find it funny and it'll make your interview memorable.
You can mention off the bat that you are a fan of his talks, and if you get to reference them, you don’t have to specify the exact year and event name. More importantly, if they ask for your opinion / experience, share your POV not just what they said. Remember that you are not necessarily working closely under the hiring manager, but also other people. Whether he is mildly impressed or incredibly creeped out, there are other people in the interview pipeline that will determine if you are hired.