Position: An Empirically Grounded Identifiability Theory Will Accelerate Self-Supervised Learning Research

Understand

Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) powers many current AI systems.

• As research interest and investment grow, the SSL design space continues to expand.
• The Platonic view of SSL, following the Platonic Representation Hypothesis (PRH), suggests that despite different methods and engineering approaches, all representations converge to the same Platonic ideal.
• However, this phenomenon lacks precise theoretical explanation.