{"id":27853,"date":"2018-08-24T20:36:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T00:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urelles.com\/should-the-nips-conference-change-its-name\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T12:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:44:19","slug":"should-the-nips-conference-change-its-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urelles.com\/en\/magazine\/inclusion\/should-the-nips-conference-change-its-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the NIPS conference change its name?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world-famous artificial intelligence conference, Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), is considering a name change to promote diversity and inclusion. Is this well-placed sensitivity or just plain nonsense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NIPS is a conference on machine learning and computational neuroscience held every December. The first NIPS was held in 1986, in California. Since then, it has been hosted all over the world. There were 5,000 attendees in 2016 and 8,000 in 2017. Everyone agrees that it is the largest artificial intelligence (AI) conference in the world. The 2018 edition will be held in Montreal from December 3 to 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, the field of artificial intelligence is no different from the rest of the techno world: people other than white males are a rarity there. NIPS is no exception. A Quartz article<\/a> describes the 2017 edition: \u201cLook at the set of computer scientists shaping the future of artificial intelligence and the first thing you’ll notice will be all those backpacks. […] Backpacks mark tribesmen, mostly men in their 20s and 30s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The acronym for the world’s largest AI gathering is NIPS. The term \u201cnips\u201d has a negative connotation in English for two reasons. It’s a racist expression for Japanese people, and a not exactly glorious diminutive for women’s breasts.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the name of the conference began to be questioned, when a group of people created, in protest, the Transformationally Intelligent Technologies Symposium<\/a>, whose acronym is TITS. The parody event was to be held at the same time as NIPS.<\/p>\n

Check out the site, it’s really something!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of this false event, the discussion opened up about the need to change the name. In April, the official NIPS Twitter account posted this message<\/a>: \u201cIn the context of diversity and anti-harassment policies, the NIPS board is currently discussing the possibility of changing the conference name. The first reason is the unfortunate connotation of the current name, which may invite unpleasant comments and make some attendees uncomfortable. The second reason is that the scope and role of the conference has changed over the years, and a new name might better reflect the reality of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, would it be a good thing or a bad thing for NIPS to change its name? Here’s what those in favor say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n