Trying to "harden" million-parameter models trained on a relatively small number of relevant examples will be a nightmare to make web security look easy.
Too bad... Vancouver/Whistler was an awesome place to have a conference, even if the weather was rainy and the skiing so-so. A NIPS too big to be hosted by anything but a mega-city sounds depressing.
PS -- NIPS is in Long Beach now? What a shame.