In 30 Sekunden
Howard argues that research should address practical needs and recounts a transfer-learning project.
- 1IncentivesHoward criticizes publication incentives.
- 2TransferHe values using less data.
- 3Active learningHe describes selecting examples for labeling.
- 4Career pressureHe acknowledges junior researchers’ constraints.
Das Wichtigste
- He questions publication incentives.
- Transfer and active learning can reduce resource demands.
- Career pressures affect research choices.
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Research incentives
Lex Fridman asks fast.ai co-founder Jeremy Howard about the gap between deep-learning theory and practical work.
Lex Fridman asks fast.ai co-founder Jeremy Howard about the gap between deep-learning theory and practical work.
Howard criticizes research incentives that he believes favor incremental work on familiar topics over practical impact. This is his assessment of the field.
Transfer and active learning
He argues that transfer learning can enable useful work with fewer resources and data, and says he considers it insufficiently studied.
He argues that transfer learning can enable useful work with fewer resources and data, and says he considers it insufficiently studied.
Howard also highlights active learning, where a system helps select which examples people should label.
He describes a practical reason for prioritizing difficult examples: labeling everything can be slow and expensive.
A practical project
Howard recounts work with Sebastian Ruder on transfer learning for natural-language processing and says the project began as a practical teaching need.
Howard recounts work with Sebastian Ruder on transfer learning for natural-language processing and says the project began as a practical teaching need.
He says their prototype performed strongly on a benchmark and was later written up and published.
Howard acknowledges that junior researchers may face different incentives and pressure to select safer, familiar topics.
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