#AcademicRunPlaylist - 4/7/24

I got pretty burned out running way faster than normal next to my kid as he rode his bike way longer than we initially agreed, but at least I got to listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an amazing panel on authorship in the age of generative AI with Lindsay Caplan, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, Jenna Morton-Aiken, and Sydney Skybetter at Brown University. The conversation here rightly centers on people creating artistic work, and whose data is used to power these algorithms. Implications for artists and society as a whole are examined in detail. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXs46YZkgQM&t=12s

Next was a great talk by Anne Collins on the importance of goals in human reinforcement learning at Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGcvHnCDJMI

Next was an interesting talk by Agostina Palmigiano on the dynamical signatures of non-sensory signals in the sensory cortex at Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fQSjoZ5o8&t=10s

Next was an intriguing talk by Read Montague on human neuromodulatory signaling and its connection to reinforcement learning at Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlGNLO6E5h0&t=3s

Next was an incredible talk by Francesca Trivellato on risk and credit 500 years before modern finance at the Institute for Advanced Study. Trivellato explores the constraints of preindustrial finance and a number of credit innovations that laid the groundwork for future growth. The challenges of assessing risk in an accurate and timely fashion are instructive when considered today, as is the reticence of officials to consider using probability theory and statistics to drive policy. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OyVD7XTjQM

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Ezekiel Dixon-Román on critical theory and quantification at Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSY-E4hGiBY

Last was a fascinating panel on historical Chinese mapmaking with Laura Hostetler (intro to the "Map of All Under Heaven"), Matthew Mosca (China's world map under the Qing), and Timothy Brook (Qing China's great state map) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56KDNmpKOjs