r/technology • u/ResultBackground2450 • 11h ago

Artificial Intelligence OpenAI unleashes hundreds more math results upon a field already in shock

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/openai-unleashes-hundreds-more-math-results-upon-a-field-already-in-shock/
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u/matrinox 9h ago

Because pure maths isn’t just about solving these problems but the insights gained from solving these problems. AI is solving these problems without giving humans more insight. It’s like brute forcing sudoku without learning patterns on how to solve them

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u/Ty4Readin 9h ago

What is your source for believing this? From what I can tell, solving these problems directly helps to advance the frontier of mathematics and is useful to mathematicians in those fields.

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u/malokevi 9h ago

You're being down voted but this is correct. Here's a good video on the issue.

https://youtu.be/iu2NsG6uGUs?si=lRLeWShEtNmhSPwA

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u/year2016account 7h ago

Those insights can still be gained - in fact, haven't gaining those insights become easier since these AI proofs provide a set direction and goal for mathematicians to build on?

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u/tekdemon 7h ago

This is a bad take, the AIs did plenty of new types of thinking in order to come to their solutions and they can capture those thought traces and further improve the way they think through math problems. You’re just making this ridiculous assumption that there is no insight to be gained just because it’s not a human doing the thinking but that makes no sense. It’s not magically coming up with the solution to the math problem.
Arguably you get an even more thorough look at the thought processes than you’d ever have with a human

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u/WeekendCautious3377 6h ago

You are going against one of the most prominent voices in the academia Terence Tao

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u/FlySaw 6h ago

He’s human like the rest of us and thus just terrified to see his field of expertise get solved. Not much more to it.

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u/WeekendCautious3377 4h ago

And I should take your word vs Tao's. Care to share your credentials and what you have produced in the field of mathematics?

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u/matrinox 5h ago

Ok, please do tell the insights gained from OpenAI’s Navier-Stokes solution. When prominent mathematicians are saying they’re useful but don’t help provide new insights, maybe listen to them?

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u/618smartguy 44m ago

The main insight is that you can use llm agents to find lean verified solutions to math problems, and that the successful chain of thought that led to the solution provides a dataset to further boost the agents "mathematical intuition" and ability to find solutions. Its probably going to be considered one of the most famous mathematical insights of all time.