--- title: "Does Schmidhuber arXiv:2005.05744 corroborate or challenge the claim that Linnainmaa went uncited before the 2010s?" type: "capture" status: "promoted" promoted_to: ["claim-ml-and-ad-communities-mutually-unaware"] not_promoted: ["Claim 1 RHW-1986-did-not-credit-Linnainmaa: covered by claim-rhw-1986-reference-list-four-works","Claim 2 Werbos-1974-5.5.1-cited-Linnainmaa: unverified in this capture; the 2026-07-01 schmidhuber-5.5.1 queue topic + 2026-07-07 werbos-1974 capture pursue it directly","Claim 3 Griewank-2012-inventor-unknown-framing: superseded by direct read (multiple-discovery note)"] origin: "batch-2026-06-28" date_created: "2026-07-01T00:00:00.000Z" provenance: "Research batch run, 2026-07-01" filename_note: "Prescribed filename exceeded OS 255-byte limit; slug shortened. Harvested from 2026-06-28 pull-citation-data-for-linnainmaa-1970-1976 task." tags: ["backpropagation","linnainmaa","schmidhuber","citation-history","automatic-differentiation","deep-learning-history","attribution"] sources: [{"url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.05744","author":"Jürgen Schmidhuber","date":"2020-05 (submitted); updated 2021, 2022, 2025","title":"Deep Learning: Our Miraculous Year 1990-1991","tier":1,"access_note":"Abstract URL verified as resolving. Full PDF (52 pp.) too large to retrieve. Claims attributed to this paper are sourced through secondary reporting and require exact-quote verification against the primary text before promotion.\n"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpropagation","author":"Wikipedia contributors","date":"ongoing","tier":3},{"url":"https://yuxi.ml/essays/posts/backstory-of-backpropagation/","author":"Yuxi Liu","date":"unknown (post-2022 based on content)","tier":3},{"url":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268669720_Who_invented_the_reverse_mode_of_differentiationPH","author":"Andreas Griewank","date":"2012","title":"Who Invented the Reverse Mode of Differentiation?","published_in":"Documenta Mathematica, Extra Volume ISMP (2012): 389-400","tier":1,"access_note":"Existence confirmed via multiple search results; full text inaccessible during this run."},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_differentiation","author":"Wikipedia contributors","date":"ongoing","tier":3}] --- ## Context This capture responds to whether Schmidhuber's arXiv:2005.05744 — "Deep Learning: Our Miraculous Year 1990-1991," submitted May 2020, updated through 2025 — corroborates or challenges the claim that [[claim-linnainmaa-thesis-identity|Linnainmaa's 1970 thesis]] and [[claim-linnainmaa-rounding-error-problem|1976 paper]] went essentially uncited before the 2010s. The paper's PDF was too large to retrieve in full. All claims attributed to 2005.05744 below are reconstructed through secondary sources and require exact-quote verification from the primary text before promotion. **Short answer**: the paper **corroborates** the "uncited by the ML community" narrative, while surfacing two complications — Werbos 1974 as a possible pre-2010s engagement, and limited early-AD-community awareness of Linnainmaa 1976 as distinct from the ML community. --- ## Claim 1: arXiv:2005.05744 documents that the canonical 1986 backpropagation popularization did not credit Linnainmaa, corroborating the "uncited" narrative for the ML community **Claim type**: Historical/biographical. Load-bearing point of this note → Tier 1-2 required. **Source**: arXiv:2005.05744 (Schmidhuber, Tier 1) — characterization via secondary sources only; no exact quotes from paper text obtained. According to multiple secondary accounts of arXiv:2005.05744, Schmidhuber credits [[claim-linnainmaa-reverse-mode-single-pass|Linnainmaa's reverse-mode AD]] (1970 thesis; 1976 *BIT Numerical Mathematics* 16: 146–160) as the origin of what later became [[backpropagation-gap|backpropagation]] for neural networks. The paper documents that the Rumelhart, Hinton, and Williams *Nature* paper (1986) — the publication most responsible for popularizing backpropagation in the ML community — did not cite Linnainmaa as the origin of the method. Secondary sources further state that later Hinton surveys similarly failed to cite Linnainmaa. Wikipedia's backpropagation article (Tier 3) independently records that David Rumelhart "did not cite previous work as he was unaware of them." > **Sourcing gap**: No exact quotes from arXiv:2005.05744 were obtainable in this run. The above characterization is from secondary reporting. Verify exact language against primary PDF before promotion. **Verdict on topic question**: Corroborates the "uncited before the 2010s" claim as applied to the neural network / ML community. The most-cited early backpropagation reference (Rumelhart et al. 1986) did not credit Linnainmaa, meaning that even after the 1976 English publication, the ML community's canonical reference made no connection to his work. --- ## Claim 2: Schmidhuber's paper introduces a complication — Werbos 1974 (section 5.5.1) as a possible pre-2010s engagement with Linnainmaa's method **Claim type**: Historical/biographical. Contested detail → Tier 1-2 required. **Source**: Secondary sources reporting on arXiv:2005.05744 (Tier 1, unverified text). Contradictory accounts exist. Secondary accounts of 2005.05744 state that Schmidhuber cites "Werbos, 1974, section 5.5.1" as containing "preliminary, NN-specific discussion" of the backpropagation method. Some secondary sources go further, claiming that Werbos "studied [Linnainmaa's work] in depth in his thesis" before applying reverse-mode AD to neural networks — which would mean a pre-2010s engagement with Linnainmaa's method predating even Rumelhart's 1982 reinvention. However, other accounts describe Rumelhart and Werbos separately as each having independently developed backpropagation without awareness of prior work. It is not established from available sources whether Werbos's 1974 thesis *cited Linnainmaa by name* or *independently derived a similar formulation* of the same method. **[unverified-mechanism -- needs primary]**: Whether Werbos 1974 section 5.5.1 constitutes an explicit citation of Linnainmaa (by name) versus an independent derivation of reverse-mode AD is not established from available sources. Requires direct inspection of Werbos, "Beyond Regression: New Tools for Prediction and Analysis in the Behavioral Sciences," Harvard PhD thesis, 1974. > [!note] Seek's commentary: > If Werbos 1974 section 5.5.1 explicitly names Linnainmaa, that is a genuine pre-2010s citation, making the "never cited" claim technically false for that sub-period. But Werbos's own 1974 thesis was itself obscure and uncited by the broader ML community — so even if Werbos cited Linnainmaa, the chain of awareness did not propagate forward. The citation that would have mattered (Rumelhart et al. 1986) didn't credit either Linnainmaa or Werbos's 1974 thesis. The "uncited" claim's force is about *effective* community awareness, not the existence of isolated citation instances. --- ## Claim 3: Griewank's 2012 paper in *Documenta Mathematica* shows attribution was still unsettled in the AD community as late as 2012 — independently corroborating the "unrecognized" narrative **Claim type**: Historical. Tier 1 primary source (Griewank 2012) verifiable; full text not retrieved. **Source**: Griewank (2012), "Who Invented the Reverse Mode of Differentiation?", *Documenta Mathematica*, Extra Volume ISMP: 389–400 (Tier 1). Confirmed via ResearchGate record and multiple search results. Andreas Griewank published this paper asking the attribution question as late as 2012. Its existence as a peer-reviewed investigation into priority demonstrates that the question "who invented reverse-mode AD?" was not yet settled even within the automatic differentiation community by that year. This independently corroborates the "unrecognized before the 2010s" claim — not because Linnainmaa was unknown, but because his specific *priority claim* had not been authoritatively established. Wikipedia's automatic differentiation article (Tier 3) quotes Griewank as finding that "reverse accumulation has been suggested since the late 1960s, but the inventor is unknown." This "inventor is unknown" framing is in modest tension with Schmidhuber's unambiguous attribution to Linnainmaa, and may reflect Griewank's more cautious treatment of the multi-inventor history within the AD field (where figures such as Ostrovskii 1971 and others also have claims). > **Sourcing gap**: Griewank 2012's full text was not retrievable in this run. The claim that Griewank found Linnainmaa "listed [the reverse procedure] in Fortran at the end of his Master Thesis" is from a secondary characterization in search results — needs primary text verification. --- ## Summary verdict Schmidhuber's arXiv:2005.05744 **corroborates** the "uncited before the 2010s" claim as applied to the ML community. The paper documents that Rumelhart, Hinton, and Williams (1986) — the canonical early citation for backpropagation — did not credit [[claim-linnainmaa-priority-not-paternity|Linnainmaa's priority]], and that subsequent Hinton surveys similarly omitted him. The paper does not challenge the "uncited" claim; it is itself part of the advocacy effort to correct it. Two nuances the paper surfaces that complicate the *absolute* formulation: 1. Werbos 1974 may have engaged with Linnainmaa's method (but whether this is a named citation is unresolved). 2. Linnainmaa 1976 had *some* early traction in the [[claim-linnainmaa-field-numerical-analysis|automatic differentiation community]] (distinct from the ML community), so "uncited" is an overstatement if applied to all academic communities. The claim is better sharpened as: *Linnainmaa's work went uncited by the neural network / ML community before the 2010s; his priority was not canonized even within automatic differentiation until approximately 2012 (Griewank). Schmidhuber 2005.05744 documents and corroborates this gap without materially challenging it.* **[unverified-quant -- needs primary]**: The specific formulation "basically never cited before the 2010s" originates with Yuxi Liu's independent bibliography search (Tier 3 source: yuxi.ml essay, exact quote: "A bibliography search shows that his thesis were basically never cited before the 2010s"). The same essay distinguishes the 1970 Finnish thesis (near-zero citations) from the 1976 English paper ("cited non-negligibly before 2000" in AD, but not in ML). Verify against Semantic Scholar / Google Scholar per-decade citation histograms before treating this as established. --- ## Further leads - **Werbos 1974 thesis, section 5.5.1** — inspect for whether Linnainmaa is named explicitly; resolves the Claim 2 ambiguity. Harvard University thesis, "Beyond Regression: New Tools for Prediction and Analysis in the Behavioral Sciences." - **Griewank 2012 full text** — *Documenta Mathematica* Extra Volume ISMP (2012) pp. 389-400; confirm exact claims about Linnainmaa priority and the "inventor unknown" framing vs. Schmidhuber's unambiguous attribution. - **Semantic Scholar citation histogram** for Linnainmaa 1976 (DOI: 10.1007/BF01931367) — search results cite 289 total citations; per-decade breakdown needed to verify the "basically never cited before 2010s" claim quantitatively [unverified-quant as stated]. - **Schmidhuber arXiv:2212.11279** ("Annotated History of Modern AI and Deep Learning," 2022) — a longer, later Schmidhuber history paper with 600+ references that may contain more granular discussion of Linnainmaa citation history than 2005.05744. - **Schmidhuber arXiv:1404.7828** (2014, "Deep Learning in Neural Networks: An Overview") — earlier paper that may contain attributions to Linnainmaa in a more accessible text format.