#AcademicRunPlaylist - 12/6/24

It was pretty cold and windy in Boston today, but I still was able to go for a nice run and listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the first day of the National Bureau of Economic Research Organizational Economics symposium. I particularly liked the talks by Anant Nyshadham (gender balance effects in fast food) and Alexia Delfino (productivity effects of team/manager value misalignment) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-m3OQJ34yE

Next was a compelling talk by Rachel Holladay on dexterous decision-making for robotic manipulation at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering & Applied Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD_rmRDnQRc

Next was an amazing panel on the false choice between digital regulation and innovation with Anu Bradford, Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green, Ignacio Cofone, and Carl Benedikt Frey at the Institute for Ethics in AI. This panel details how regulation channels innovation rather than blocks it and why the EU's innovation problem lies in other issues. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tshDKg1vqmE

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Glen Miller on the meaning of responsible engineering at UC Boulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIiarbWF26c

Next was an engaging conversation with Serena Hagerty on how people make ethical judgements of others and the role of inequality in these assessments on the Stakeholder Podcast https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/stakeholdermedia/id/34282555

Next was an interesting talk by Xianyi Cheng on how to understand and create dexterous robots at UC Boulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIQ-uf_cDJk

Next was a great talk by Zihao He on measuring and shifting the ideological perspectives of LLMs at the USC Information Sciences Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egqk3ZfbyQ8&t=3s

Next was an excellent talk by Danna Gurari on designing computer vision solutions for the real world, focusing on authentic datasets and compensation methods, at UC Boulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zudZ3-MTko

Next was an informative discussion with Camelia Kuhnen on the monthly BLS numbers at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsUsAANhggA

Next was an intriguing talk by Jason Xinyu Liu on robotic language grounding at UC Boulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmXw1vQuMcY

Next was a nice talk by Somil Bansal on designing continual safety assurances for learning robotic systems at Stanford University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeJ4x1EyIFM

Last was "The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka, who has penned a masterpiece, using witty writing with fascinating narratives around the genesis of different experiments to lay out a solid case for bees as capable of far more cognition than most people think. Starting from an exploration of bee sensory mechanisms (the sections on navigation and light polarization were amazing), then moving to a wide variety of experiments to detail just how much bees can plan, remember, and reason. Some of the sections on group behavior was less compelling, since while Chittka briefly explores complexity theory it wasn't touched on in the section on hive construction.

Overall this is one of the best books on cognition that I've read, and with all the hype about "general intelligence" folks would be well advised to pick up a copy of this book before opining on the topic. Highly recommend https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691236247/the-mind-of-a-bee?srsltid=AfmBOoo4BdlWq87UG0vie31nMvvUK6i1pyRjquX5r6jHpVRccgwBWJiE