#AcademicRunPlaylist - 10/31/24

Not sure how many folks on here know who I dressed up for Halloween (10 Internet points for those who do!), but prior to enjoying the festivities I was able to listen to some no-so-spooky talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Aloni Cohen on the necessity of using differential privacy to guarantee copyright protections in generative AI systems at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZnE2IIKAr8

Next was an incredible talk by Faye-Marie Vassel and Evan Shieh on intersectional biases in LLMs at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). This is vital work, and the herculean effort this team undertook to methodically document the nearly overwhelming biases of these models is a call to action for the community and a warning to those using these models today. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHZcfuTvqU

Next was an intriguing talk by Jonathan Shafer on mitigating undetectable backdoors in machine learning at the Simons Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzV89NnDyxg

Next was an excellent talk by Jonathan Haskel on the challenge of accounting for intangible investment in GDP calculations and the relationship with economic growth at the Royal Statistical Society. This is one of the clearest explanations I've heard of this issue and its importance. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNz9bJV_vWw&t=18s

Next was a fantastic talk by Taylor Sorensen on building pluralistically aligned generative AI systems at the Simons Institute. There are strong echoes of the jury learning work here, but the extension to the generative space requires a rethinking of this paradigm, which Sorensen expertly expounds on here. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F0iaivYdvI

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Paul Heidhues on the theoretical competitive dynamics of digital ecosystems at the Toulouse School of Economics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JIakTFyFGM

Next was a compelling talk by Raluca Ada Popa on private retrieval-augmented generation at the Simons Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJgyVh-We8

Next was an engaging talk by Parastoo Abtahi on using drones and other technologies to provide haptic illusions in VR at the University of Maryland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j4VbdpDWcg

Last was a nice talk by Carl Vondrick on building multimodal robotic systems at the GRASP Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yl3Cdz36nw