The top of the world AI Research Conference, The Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, better known as NeuroIPS– became the latest organization this week to get involved in a growing conflict between geopolitics and global scientific collaboration. Conference organizers announced then quickly reversed controversial new restrictions for international attendees after Chinese AI researchers threatened to boycott the event.
“This is a potential watershed moment,” says Paul Triolo, a partner at consultancy DGA-Albright Stonebridge who studies U.S.-China relations. Triolo says attracting Chinese researchers to NeurIPS is beneficial to U.S. interests, but some U.S. officials have pushed U.S. and Chinese scientists to separate their work, particularly in the area of AI, which has become a particularly sensitive topic in Washington.
The incident could heighten political tensions around AI research and deter Chinese scientists from working at U.S. universities and tech companies in the future. “At one level, it will now be difficult to keep basic AI research out of the [political] image,” says Triolo.
In their annual manual for paper submissions, published in mid-March, NeurIPS organizers announced updated participation restrictions. The rules stated that the event could not provide services including “peer review, editing and publication” to organizations subject to US sanctions and linked to a database sanctioned entities. It included companies and organizations that were members of the Bureau of Industry and Security. entity list and those on another list with alleged links to the Chinese army.
The new rules would have affected researchers at Chinese companies like Tencent and Huawei, who regularly present their work at NeurIPS. The database also includes entities from other countries like Russia and Iran. The United States imposes limits on business dealings with these organizations, but there are no rules regarding academic publications or conference attendance.
The NeurIPS manual has since been updated to clarify that the restrictions only apply to Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Personsa list used primarily for terrorist groups and criminal organizations.
“In preparing the NeurIPS 2026 Handbook, we included a link to a U.S. government sanctions tool that covers a much broader set of restrictions than NeurIPS is actually required to follow,” event organizers said in a declaration published Friday. “This error was due to poor communication between the NeurIPS Foundation and our legal team.”
Before changing course, the conference organizers first said that the new rule concerned “the legal requirements that apply to the NeurIPS Foundation, which is responsible for compliance with the sanctions”, adding that it was seeking legal consultation on the matter.
Immediate reaction
The new rule sparked a rapid response from AI researchers around the world, particularly in China, which produces a large amount of cutting-edge machine learning papers and is home to a growing share of the world’s top AI talent. Several academic groups have issued statements condemning the move and, more importantly, discouraging Chinese academics from attending NeurIPS in the future. Some have urged Chinese academics to instead contribute to national research conferences, which could help increase the country’s influence in relevant science and technology fields.
The China Association of Science and Technology (CAST), an influential government-affiliated organization of scientists and engineers, said Thursday it would stop funding Chinese academics traveling to attend NeurIPS and would instead use the money to support domestic and international conferences that “respect the rights of Chinese academics.”
CAST also said it would no longer count publications from the NeurIPS 2026 conference as academic achievements when evaluating future research funding. It’s unclear whether the organization will backtrack now that NeurIPS has opted out of the new rule.
At least six academics have publicly stated that they declined invitations to serve as sector chairs at NeurIPS this year because of the sanctions policy. Others said they would decline to participate as article reviewers.
“I served as [area chair] for NeurIPS every year since 2020. Just declined,” Nan Jiang, a machine learning researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. social media post. “At least the organizers need to explain to the community why they are the only major ML site to adopt such a policy.”
“It’s one less sector president responsibility for me. If I hadn’t already made a commitment to my colleagues, I wouldn’t be submitting a document this year either,” wrote Yasin Abbasi-Yadkori, researcher at AI company Sapient Intelligence.
Loaded links
The controversy reflects the increasingly tense political landscape that top researchers, many of whom have long been accustomed to collaborating with international colleagues, must now navigate. Although progress in AI often depends on this kind of openness, growing tensions between the United States and China in recent years have significantly complicated the situation.
Thousands of Chinese scientists participate in NeurIPS every year. By 2025, about half of the papers presented at the event came from researchers at Chinese universities, according to an analysis conducted by The Economist. Tsinghua University, widely considered the best university in China, was featured on 390 NeurIPS articles, more than any other institution or company. Alibaba researchers also received one of the conference’s best paper awards for their work related to the company’s business. Qwen open source AI model.
A WIRED precedent the analysis shows that despite growing tensions between Washington and Beijing, American and Chinese researchers have largely continued to collaborate on work published on NeurIPS. But the latest sanctions saga could put these ties to the test.
“The prosperity of NeurIPS comes from the joint efforts of researchers around the world, and its growth and success have also long been supported by the sponsorship of some of the sanctioned entities,” wrote Yuliang Xiu, assistant professor of digital graphics at Westlake University in China. social networksadding that he had also declined an invitation to serve as regional president of the conference.
This is an edition of Zeyi Yang And Louise Matsakis‘ Newsletter Made in China. Read previous newsletters here.