#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/30/24

Rather than show another picture from Boston I thought I'd share another picture from my long run on Saturday, and on the trip back home I was able to listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great talk by Dodzi Koku Hattoh with an indigenous African perspective on responsible AI at the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE). Hattoh identifies issues with current approaches to defining what responsibility entails in this space, exploring the importance of the material supply chain in addition to other factors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4nH51eSFA8

Next was an interesting talk by Yang Diyi on improving LLM performance on language dialects and using LLMs for social skills training at the Carnegie Mellon University Software and Societal Systems Department https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diS3bt5ejzc

Last was "The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap" by Mehrsa Baradaran. This book is a masterful historical analysis of the inexorably connected spheres of racism, wealth, and finance, as well as a compelling example of the folly in attempting to disconnect economic analyses from historical realities. Baradaran details the challenges of running Black banks as a commercial entity that need to remain a going concern while serving a smaller, financially risky customer base and trying to serve a social purpose. That financial risk is rooted in the US's history of slavery and racism, which is laid out in its economic context here.

For those hoping of an exhaustive, focused account of the Black banking sector you will likely want a bit more on that topic after reading the book. I myself was hoping for a bit more here, but thankfully Baradaran cites lots of useful sources to follow up on.

Overall this is an essential book for those hoping to understand and improve the economy and economic and social justice in the US. Highly recommend.

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674970953