#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/4/24

I had to do some chores for my parents during the day, but that also gave me some time to listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the workshop on continual learning in computer vision at #CVPR2024, with notable talks by Vineeth N Balasubramanian (integrating explainability and privacy-awareness) and Elisa Ricci (class-incremental novel class discovery) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ_HZu-8eMI

Next was an engaging conversation with Kevin Frazier on the importance of using research, rather than vibes, to drive AI regulation at The Lawfare Institute. While I would've liked to see more citation of the large existing research community on current AI harms (FAccT comes to mind), the idea that this should be much better resourced than the current state of the field is welcomed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frfqjJGyaRs

Last was "The Fight for Privacy" by Danielle Citron. There's deep, qualitative insight in this book about how intimate privacy has been increasingly compromised by the proliferation of digital tools throughout our lives. This is complemented by the sections Citron devotes to case law and different legal regimes around protecting privacy and intimate privacy specifically.

One of the knocks for me on this book is that the title is misleading - I think if it was called "the fight for intimate privacy" it would be much more clear what was going to be tackled here. As it stands, other privacy topics are barely covered. I would've also liked a lot more on the legal analysis of this topic, given the author's expertise as one of the preeminent legal scholars on the topic. The anecdotes and stories are useful up to a point, but after hearing a number of similar terrible stories of privacy violations I felt like many issues were just being rehashed without additional insight into the core privacy issues involved.

From this perspective, I would recommend this book to those looking to understand more around the landscape of intimate privacy harms and possible legal remedies. For those looking for a broader coverage of privacy, you'll probably leave disappointed. https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393882315