Dissecting the Controversy around OpenAI’s New Language Model - TWiML Talk #234

If you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve likely seen some of the press coverage and discussion surrounding the release, or lack thereof, of OpenAI’s new GPT-2 Language Model. The announcement caused quite a stir, with reactions spanning confusion, frustration, concern, and many points in between. Several days later, many open questions remained about the model and the way the release was handled.

Seeing the continued robust discourse, and wanting to offer the community a forum for exploring this topic with more nuance than Twitter’s 280 characters allow, we convened the inaugural “TWiML Live” panel. I was joined on the panel by Amanda Askell and Miles Brundage of OpenAI, Anima Anandkumar of NVIDIA and CalTech, Robert Munro of Lilt, and Stephen Merity, the latter being some of the most outspoken voices in the online discussion of this issue.

Our discussion thoroughly explored the many issues surrounding the GPT-2 release controversy. We cover the basics like what language models are and why they’re important, and why this announcement caused such a stir, and dig deep into why the lack of a full release of the model raised concerns for so many.

The discussion initially aired via Youtube Live and we’re happy to share it with you via the podcast as well. To be clear, both the panel discussion and live stream format were a bit of an experiment for us and we’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Would you like to see, or hear, more of these TWiML Live conversations? If so, what issues would you like us to take on?

If you have feedback for us on the format or if you’d like to join the discussion around OpenAI’s GPT-2 model, head to the show notes page for this show at twimlai.com/talk/234 and leave us a comment.