The world’s top AI research conference, NeurIPS (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems), quickly reversed controversial new restrictions for international participants this week after Chinese AI researchers threatened to boycott the event.
In its annual handbook for paper submissions issued in mid-March, NeurIPS organizers announced updated restrictions stating that the event could not provide services including “peer review, editing, and publishing” to any organizations subject to US sanctions. The rules linked to a database of sanctioned entities that included companies on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list and those with alleged ties to the Chinese military.
The restrictions would have affected researchers at Chinese companies like Tencent and Huawei who regularly present work at NeurIPS. The database also included entities from Russia and Iran. However, the US places no rules around academic publishing or conference participation for these organizations, despite limits on doing business with them.
The China Association of Science and Technology (CAST), an influential government-affiliated organization, responded by announcing it would stop providing funding for Chinese scholars traveling to attend NeurIPS. CAST said it would redirect the money to support domestic and international conferences that “respect the rights of Chinese scholars.” Several academic groups issued statements condemning the measure and discouraging Chinese academics from attending NeurIPS.
NeurIPS organizers issued a statement Friday acknowledging the error: “In preparing the NeurIPS 2026 handbook, we included a link to a US government sanctions tool that covers a significantly broader set of restrictions than those NeurIPS is actually required to follow. This error was due to miscommunication between the NeurIPS Foundation and our legal team.” The handbook has since been updated to specify restrictions apply only to Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, a list used primarily for terrorist groups and criminal organizations.
