The NeurIPS conference has announced that it will no longer accept paper submissions from organizations on the United States’ “Specially Designated Nationals List” (SDN), including affiliated entities. NeurIPS is a globally important artificial intelligence conference. Chinese institutions have protested and threatened in response to this decision.
NeurIPS posted a notice on its official website stating that it will not accept paper submissions from organizations on the United States’ SDN list. The foundation stated, “Like any entity operating within the jurisdiction of U.S. law, the NeurIPS foundation must also adhere to U.S. sanctions and trade restrictions. According to these regulations, providing ‘services’ (including peer review, editing, and publication) to Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDNs) is strictly prohibited. Therefore, we cannot accept or publish any submissions from SDNs or any individuals or institutions associated with SDNs that NeurIPS has reason to believe represent or are associated with.”
NeurIPS provided a link to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website, which lists all SDNs. NeurIPS stated that it will only consider submissions from institutions and individuals classified by the U.S. State Department as “non-SDN.”
The China Computer Federation (CCF) criticized NeurIPS in a statement released on March 25, accusing the conference of introducing political factors into the academic field. The CCF called on all scientists and researchers in the Chinese computer field to refuse to provide any academic services to NeurIPS, to refrain from submitting papers to NeurIPS, a movement known as “no submission, no review.” The CCF also issued a threat, stating that if NeurIPS does not rectify the situation, it will remove it from the list of international conferences recommended by the CCF.
NeurIPS is one of the world’s top artificial intelligence conferences, attracting tens of thousands of top researchers each year to showcase cutting-edge research. It has also become a critical recruitment battleground for American and Chinese tech companies competing for AI talent.
According to data from the European consulting firm AI World, China has become the largest contributor to the NeurIPS conference in recent years, largely due to the research achievements of institutions such as Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Last year, the NeurIPS conference was held in two locations for the first time (San Diego Convention Center in the United States and Mexico), partly due to concerns that Chinese attendees might face U.S. visa obstacles. The Alibaba Cloud team, including Chief Technology Officer Zhou Jingren, was awarded the best paper prize at the conference. The year before, researchers from ByteDance and Peking University also received similar awards.