I'm back in Tokyo for the duration (pic is from my run yesterday), and on the train back I listened to talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fantastic talk by Volodymyr Kuleshov on how to build a modern diffusion language model at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Kuleshov clearly explains more recent approaches, advantages over more traditional LMs, and different implementation choices. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fUSw9Jgvog

Next was an engaging talk by Penny Crofts and Honni van Rijswijk on viewing corporate harm through the lens of horror fiction at the University of Technology Sydney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9dRgoCG_b4

Next was “Auditing AI” by (deep breath) Christian Sandvig, Marc Aidinoff, Alondra Nelson, Kristen Vaccaro, Karrie Karahalios, Esha Bhandari, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Lena Armstrong, J. Nathan Matias, Motahhare Eslami, and Danaé Metaxa. This authors list is a veritable who's-who of the ethical AI space, and this shows in the straightforward, insightful approach they take to working through the ins and outs of the AI auditing process. Most of the cases presented here will be familiar to anyone who's already in the space, and if you've read some of the literature you'll probably be most interested in the more practical discussions of AI auditing, although those sections are fairly surface level due to the length of the book. I wish there was more time spent on identifying auditing targets and the implications of choosing easier to audit systems/small players in the space versus more substantive but potentially challenging targets. I'm biased since I know pymetrics' founder well, but the section on that was weirdly unfair criticism given the legal limits of the HR space (unsure if the authors have experience there), and the cut and paste example of the Amazon hiring algorithm (which was never used) also demonstrated that some of these examples weren't considered too deeply. To be clear, this is a great book (disclosure: I know some of the authors), my comments are meant as constructive criticism. Highly recommend https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051729/auditing-ai/

Next was “Absolutely Essential” by Jonathan D. Moreno. This is an excellent review of the historical development of bioethics across the world, demonstrating how the efficacy of the current regime is predicated on a somewhat nebulous "rules-based international order" (i.e. rich nominally democratic nations setting and enforcing rules). This is useful because too often ethical frameworks have a purely domestic bent, which given the global nature of science and industry is divorced from the reality of how these fields operate. Moreno shows how the international community has consistently built norms over time backed by state power (e.g. Nuremberg code, recent CRISPR scandals, etc.), and starts to probe what the current reshuffling of global power structures means for bioethical practice. As inarguably the most advanced technical ethical field, books like this are ones that the business and tech community should read closely to understand how to begin to build a comparable depth of organizations and practices. Highly recommend https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/6025/Absolutely-EssentialBioethics-and-the-Rules-Based

Last was “Equal Opportunities and Ethnic Inequality in European Labour Markets,” edited by Karen Kraal, Judith Roosblad, John Wrench. This is the rare academic volume that actually connects across chapters, here providing a holistic view of labor inequality with regards to ethnic minorities in Europe, although there is some coverage of other regions. Since this book was written in 2009, the demographic statistics presented here are dated, but given that the points are much more macro and long term this isn't an issue. Rather, we get a clear picture of the complex nature of employment, discrimination, immigration and employment legal frameworks, and even organizational behavioral phenomena with respect to immigrant and ethnic minority workers in Europe, with much supporting literature from the US. It's also an extremely quick read, and if you're in or study management reading this is a no brainer. Highly recommend https://www.routledge.com/Equal-Opportunities-and-Ethnic-Inequality-in-European-Labour-Markets-Discrimination-Gender-and-Policies-of-Diversity/Kraal-Roosblad-Wrench/p/book/9789089641267