How to fix 'Object arrays cannot be loaded when allow_pickle=False' for imdb.load_data() function?

Question

I'm trying to implement the binary classification example using the IMDb dataset in Google Colab. I have implemented this model before. But when I tried to do it again after a few days, it returned a value error: 'Object arrays cannot be loaded when allow_pickle=False' for the load_data() function.

I have already tried solving this, referring to an existing answer for a similar problem: How to fix 'Object arrays cannot be loaded when allow_pickle=False' in the sketch_rnn algorithm. But it turns out that just adding an allow_pickle argument isn't sufficient.

My code:

from keras.datasets import imdb
(train_data, train_labels), (test_data, test_labels) = imdb.load_data(num_words=10000)

The error:

ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-2ab3902db485> in <module>()
      1 from keras.datasets import imdb
----> 2 (train_data, train_labels), (test_data, test_labels) = imdb.load_data(num_words=10000)

2 frames
/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/keras/datasets/imdb.py in load_data(path, num_words, skip_top, maxlen, seed, start_char, oov_char, index_from, **kwargs)
     57                     file_hash='599dadb1135973df5b59232a0e9a887c')
     58     with np.load(path) as f:
---> 59         x_train, labels_train = f['x_train'], f['y_train']
     60         x_test, labels_test = f['x_test'], f['y_test']
     61 

/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/numpy/lib/npyio.py in __getitem__(self, key)
    260                 return format.read_array(bytes,
    261                                          allow_pickle=self.allow_pickle,
--> 262                                          pickle_kwargs=self.pickle_kwargs)
    263             else:
    264                 return self.zip.read(key)

/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/numpy/lib/format.py in read_array(fp, allow_pickle, pickle_kwargs)
    690         # The array contained Python objects. We need to unpickle the data.
    691         if not allow_pickle:
--> 692             raise ValueError("Object arrays cannot be loaded when "
    693                              "allow_pickle=False")
    694         if pickle_kwargs is None:

ValueError: Object arrays cannot be loaded when allow_pickle=False

Answer 1

Here's a trick to force imdb.load_data to allow pickle by, in your notebook, replacing this line:

(train_data, train_labels), (test_data, test_labels) = imdb.load_data(num_words=10000)

by this:

import numpy as np
# save np.load
np_load_old = np.load

# modify the default parameters of np.load
np.load = lambda *a,**k: np_load_old(*a, allow_pickle=True, **k)

# call load_data with allow_pickle implicitly set to true
(train_data, train_labels), (test_data, test_labels) = imdb.load_data(num_words=10000)

# restore np.load for future normal usage
np.load = np_load_old