[vasco]

The existance of commercial products doesn't eliminate researchers ability to publish work. Also users are smart. ML-powered search has existed for many years with users voting with their feet based on black boxes and "big numbers and big announcements".

[whimsicalism]

Did you work in this field before?

I keep seeing comments like this, but the impact in the last year on open research has been absolutely massive and negative.

The fact that these big industrial research labs have all collectively decided to take a step back from publishing anything with technical details or evaluation is bad.

[sanxiyn]

I agree it is bad for researchers, but I think you should consider "comments like this" are coming from users.

AI was a highly unusual field in terms of sharing latest research. Car companies don't share their latest engine research with each other. Car users are happy with Consumer Reports and researchers shouting how degradation of Journal of Engine Research is massive and negative will land on deaf ears.

[whimsicalism]

It's hard to engage in motte & bailey style conversations with different commentators.

The original GP was saying there was little impact on research. Your comment is a retreat to a more defensible position that I don't have an opinion on.

[vasco]

I didn't say anything about impact on research. I said that research can continue in parallel to commercial enterprises, and end users of commercial products don't need research papers with benchmarks to know what is better.

[AlexCoventry]

That's the main reason I don't want a new car. It would take a $20M audit to assess a new car for potentially catastrophic software defects, and almost all new cars would almost certainly fail the audit.