OpenAI's Math Solutions Leave Mathematicians Stunned and Fearful
Reactions to 100 Solutions
OpenAI's October 6 release of over 100 solutions to open math problems has left the mathematical community reeling. In this collection of reactions, mathematicians express awe at results like the disproof of the Eilenberg-Ganea conjecture and the solution of the Boone-Higman conjecture, while also voicing deep concerns about the future of their field, the lack of transparency, and the potential damage to young researchers' careers.
If OpenAI wanted to destroy the mathematical community, this would be a great way to go about it.
- schiffern
>The advent of AI was always going to be a seismic shock, but this huge dump of papers is a tsunami that we have no time to prepare for. It’s clear that OpenAI will happily wash away our community’s structures to further their financial interests.
What is the alternative?
1. Don't do the research internally (except someone else will do it once the model is public)?
2. Do the research internally but wait longer before telling anyone (this is what OpenAI did before, and mathematicians explicitly told them don't do it)?
3. Don't develop better models at all (except that Chinese models are only a few months behind)?
None of the options available to OpenAI would seem to solve the above concerns.
- antonly
It really pains me to read the responses here to this and the AHM statements. It feels like HN people here are talking with such... privilege. These are the smartest people on the planet saying "hey, please don't do this, it's seriously hampering our work in this field". And then people on here say that mathematicians are... gate keeping? Not embracing progress? Who are you to say that? How do you know? What happened to empathy for others? I don't understand you all...
- sunir
People still play chess and go and StarCraft. People do what people want to do. It's not clear whether this will reduce the number of working mathematicians or increase it. There will a lot to learn from the machine proofs that will open up new frontiers as well.
So, it's like the story, "We'll see."
There has been a shocking but not altogether surprising development, and all reactions are valid.
- smath
Many of the reactions are some version of 'pissed off', which I totally understand. This reaction stands out and resonates with me:
> With these AI-generated papers, I feel that we, as a community, are not applying the same standards of quality and rigour. They can simply release multiple 100+ page papers claiming to have solved this or that problem, often with redundant arguments, unclear logical structure, multiple dead ends, and strange or unsettling terminology — in other words, slop. And we are then expected to go through it, check it, clean it up, simplify it, and explain what is actually going on. This comes at a considerable cost to us in terms of time and effort, while they can simply move on and slop-bulldoze the next conjecture. And, of course, the credit remains theirs. In some sense, we are willingly contributing to our own demise.
I'm not a mathematician, so I didn't even try to read it. But if it is unreadable slop -- then why should we (humans) believe it is correct? And why should professional mathematicians labor through reading it?
- guy_named_matt
I think that this specific blog post is an important one for history.
The stunned responses indicate a set of some of humanity's brightest struggling to comprehend the emergence of such an incomprehensibly creative and powerful intelligence.
AI has come for coding.
AI has come for mathematics.
AI will come for everything else if we don't do something NOW.