Dependency conflict: (2.5.0rc0): nemo-toolkit[asr] incompatible with numpy>=2.0

[baptiste-mnh]

Describe the bug

There is a dependency conflict when trying to install nemo-toolkit[asr] alongside numpy>=2.0. However, it works with nemo-toolkit.

Steps/Code to reproduce bug

Installation Issue

1. Create a requirements.txt with:

   numpy>=2.0.2
   nemo-toolkit[asr]==2.5.0rc0
   

2. Run: pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Error occurs:

   ERROR: Cannot install nemo-toolkit==2.5.0rc0 and nemo-toolkit[asr]==2.5.0rc0 because these package versions have conflicting dependencies.
   
   The conflict is caused by:
       The user requested nemo-toolkit==2.5.0rc0
       nemo-toolkit[asr] 2.5.0rc0 depends on nemo-toolkit 2.5.0rc0 (Installed)
   

4. Additional error when trying to install with numpy>=2.0:

   ERROR: Cannot install nemo-toolkit, nemo-toolkit[asr]==2.5.0rc0 and numpy>=2.0.2 because these package versions have conflicting dependencies.
   
   The conflict is caused by:
       The user requested numpy>=2.0.2
       nemo-toolkit 2.5.0rc0 depends on numpy>=1.22
       nemo-toolkit[asr] 2.5.0rc0 depends on numpy>=1.22
       nemo-toolkit[asr] 2.5.0rc0 depends on numpy<2.0.0; extra == "asr"
   

Same issue using directly the latest main commit : git+https://github.com/NVIDIA/NeMo.git@main#egg=nemo_toolkit[asr]

Environment overview

• Environment location: Bare-metal (macOS)
• Method of NeMo install: pip install from PyPI
• Install command: pip install "nemo-toolkit[asr]==2.5.0rc0" "numpy>=2.0.2"

Environment details

• PyTorch version: 2.8.0
• Python version: 3.12.9
• Platform: ARM64 (Apple Silicon)

Additional context

This issue prevents using NeMo ASR functionality with modern numpy versions (>=2.0). The problem has two aspects:

1. Installation conflict: The nemo-toolkit[asr] 2.5.0rc0 package having an explicit constraint numpy<2.0.0; extra == "asr" prevents installation alongside numpy>=2.0
2. Missing ASR dependencies: Installing only the base nemo-toolkit==2.5.0rc0 package (which works with numpy>=2.0) doesn't include critical ASR dependencies like hydra-core, causing runtime failures when importing nemo.collections.asr

The workaround using the main branch suggests that PR #11447 (which addresses numpy 2.x compatibility) fix the issue with nemo-toolki but for ASR use.

Thanks!