Soumith Chintala: Unapologetically Open Science

ICML 2024 · Read our full coverage of this year's conference  

Soumith Chintala’s talk (link) — the first invited talk of the conference — explored the trade-offs between “open” and “closed” research. He examined the reasons why SOTA models/cutting-edge research became gradually more open between 2010 and 2020, after which it started becoming less open.

His view is that “full AI automation” is far away, and that AI research being open is preferable. Considering the various actors and their incentives, he stressed the importance of understanding why the trend away from openness has occurred, and what we can do to reverse it. He encouraged a focus on creating conditions for openness to thrive, rather than arguing about the benefits of open vs closed.

Soumith Chintala standing in front of a slide categorising various actors on an open/closed spectrum

His key takeaways:

  1. Open vs closed is not a culture war. Understand the other side and their differing assumptions.
  2. Restore conditions to foster openness.