#NeurIPS2020 Authors! Wondering what a broader impact statement is and how to write one? We realize this may be a challenge, especially with no precedents to follow from past years. Looking on the bright side, you'll be a part of history! Here are some resources and tips. 1/5
First, the impact statement should not be long or overly speculative - we are looking for a paragraph or two, and not all papers need to include even that much. If your paper is more foundational - e.g. core ML methods or theory - then you may write that it is not applicable. 2/5
Next, the blogpost below (from Oxford Governance of AI) has advice and examples, from experts on the future and impact of ML. Their framework helps situate research with an 'impact stack'. shorturl.at/ilsvF Another valuable post from @bhecht : tiny.cc/5crnpz 3/5
Still looking for examples? Check out the 2019 NeurIPS ML for Creativity & Design workshop, which required that papers have an ethical considerations section, e.g. tiny.cc/w6pnpz, tiny.cc/28pnpz, tiny.cc/p9pnpz, tiny.cc/paqnpz. 4/5
Last, please look at Hecht et al's paper brenthecht.com/papers/FCADIsc…, which lays out the argument for requiring impact statements and which helped convince us to go down this path back in January! 5/5
