AI Weekly: NeurIPS 2020 and the hope for change

On Monday morning, organizers of NeurIPS, the largest annual gathering of AI researchers in the world, gave Best Paper awards to the authors of three pieces of research, including one detailing OpenAI's GPT-3 language model. The week also started with AI researchers refusing to review Google AI papers until grievances were resolved after firing Ethical AI team co-lead Timnit Gebru. Googlers describe it as an instance of "unprecedented research censorship," raising questions of corporate influence. According to one analysis, Google publishes more AI research than any other company or institution. Tension between corporate interests, human rights, ethics, and power could be seen at workshops throughout the week.