>At the same time, the low barrier of entry and hype has resulted in a huge amount of people downloading Keras, copying a bunch of code, tuning a few parameters, and then putting their result on arXiv so they can put AI research on their resume. This has resulted in so much noise and low quality work that it really hurts the field.
This seems extremely short-sighted to me.
If the barrier to entry (on an already relatively young technology) has come down so far that there are a bunch of noobs running rampant right now, does that not bode extremely well for future advancements in the field (assuming some non-zero conversion rate from noobs to productive members of the field over time)?
Also, let's not pretend that people with relevant degrees don't make shitty contributions to arXiv all the time.
I'm surprised anyone would default to trusting arXiv papers, or even browse new additions, without first checking up on the credentials and experience of the authors.
If the problem is finding new papers, then you really should be using sources other than arXiv.
This seems extremely short-sighted to me.
If the barrier to entry (on an already relatively young technology) has come down so far that there are a bunch of noobs running rampant right now, does that not bode extremely well for future advancements in the field (assuming some non-zero conversion rate from noobs to productive members of the field over time)?
Also, let's not pretend that people with relevant degrees don't make shitty contributions to arXiv all the time.