When AI Models Become Dependencies: Studying the Evolution of Pre-Trained Model Reuse in Downstream Software Systems
Published in arXiv preprint (under submission), 2026
Recommended citation: Peerachai Banyongrakkul, Mansooreh Zahedi, Christoph Treude, Haoyu Gao, and Patanamon Thongtanunam. 2026. When AI Models Become Dependencies: Studying the Evolution of Pre-Trained Model Reuse in Downstream Software Systems. arXiv:2604.17940. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.17940
The first empirical study of downstream pre-trained model (PTM) changes, analysing 4,988 releases across 323 GitHub OSS repositories. Finds that PTM dependencies follow a qualitatively distinct evolution pattern from traditional software libraries.