diff --git a/examples/automated_deep_compression/ADC.py b/examples/automated_deep_compression/ADC.py
index a04781150f18b553eeb3187b160511e9f1827931..590acf4c6bd86f1ac12041820616effa2889af33 100755
--- a/examples/automated_deep_compression/ADC.py
+++ b/examples/automated_deep_compression/ADC.py
@@ -65,7 +65,12 @@ import logging
 import numpy as np
 import torch
 import csv
-import gym
+try:
+    import gym
+except ImportError as e:
+    print("WARNING: to use automated compression you will need to install extra packages")
+    print("See instructions in the header of examples/automated_deep_compression/ADC.py")
+    raise e
 from gym import spaces
 import distiller
 from apputils import SummaryGraph
@@ -183,7 +188,7 @@ def amc_reward_fn(env, top1, top5, vloss, total_macs):
 experimental_reward_fn = harmonic_mean_reward_fn
 
 
-def do_adc(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn):
+def do_adc_internal(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn):
     dataset = args.dataset
     arch = args.arch
     perform_thinning = True  # args.amc_thinning
diff --git a/examples/automated_deep_compression/__init__.py b/examples/automated_deep_compression/__init__.py
index a05f8a23b16eacba69e0789740f2fbc3195ca653..5b2e97cc905519ff2486a6fca3d93945729d7f38 100755
--- a/examples/automated_deep_compression/__init__.py
+++ b/examples/automated_deep_compression/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 from .automl_args import add_automl_args
-from .ADC import do_adc
+
+def do_adc(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn):
+    from .ADC import do_adc_internal
+    do_adc_internal(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn)
diff --git a/examples/classifier_compression/compress_classifier.py b/examples/classifier_compression/compress_classifier.py
index 6f18978bc9b2a2bb3992837b47c854f2efefb5ca..b3d9513114ee1edb9f70cab4e820730a958ca800 100755
--- a/examples/classifier_compression/compress_classifier.py
+++ b/examples/classifier_compression/compress_classifier.py
@@ -657,7 +657,7 @@ def automated_deep_compression(model, criterion, optimizer, loggers, args):
 
     save_checkpoint_fn = partial(apputils.save_checkpoint, arch=args.arch, dir=msglogger.logdir)
     optimizer_data = {'lr': args.lr, 'momentum': args.momentum, 'weight_decay': args.weight_decay}
-    adc.ADC.do_adc(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn)
+    adc.do_adc(model, args, optimizer_data, validate_fn, save_checkpoint_fn, train_fn)
 
 
 def greedy(model, criterion, optimizer, loggers, args):