This isn't unique to ML. A lot of research is about adding an epsilon to an existing paper, which probably doesn't interesting anyone except a small community working in their very own niche topic.
But does it mean there's a crisis? maybe that's just a way to foster an environment that will let great ideas emerge.
I’d rather be in the world where we have too many papers tweaking the details of power posing and exactly measuring how much each contributes to the effect. At least we’d know the effect is real.
But does it mean there's a crisis? maybe that's just a way to foster an environment that will let great ideas emerge.