Hi, everyone! Here comes the last Petit Fours of 2025:

#1 Privacy People, by Stephen Bolinger, is one hour and sixteen minutes worth watching if you find yourself with a little bit of time and bandwidth: “Privacy People explores the varied interpretations of what privacy is and its importance to individuals and societies. Focusing on the events that raised cultural awareness of big data and surveillance, the film reflects on the common refrain that "privacy is dead." The story is told by some of the world’s most prominent experts from government, industry, academia, and civil society. Beyond the concept of privacy, the film examines how the privacy profession came to exist and the unique, prominent role women have played throughout its history.“

#2 Here’s another worthy yet shorter piece of video, a webinar with Ericka Johnson: Synthetic data, bias, and metadata for transparency

#3 Thanks to the train rides to Umeå and back, I had more time than usual last week to watch things of academic interest. Here’s one more, a seminar talk by Janet Vertesi, building on two decades of ethnography among planetary scientists and mission personnel: How NASA’s Robot Teams Reveal the Future of Human-AI Collaboration (Or, Ten Provocations for Studying and Crafting Responsible Human-AI Teams)

#4 For a dose of science fiction, robots, and San Francisco, I’ll finish the year by pointing you to Annalee Newitz’ new short book Automatic Noodle.

-A