Terence Tao says he's on a war footing as AI upends mathematics
"I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math
OpenAI's claim to have solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem, followed by the release of more than 350 findings across algebra, number theory, topology and logic, has left mathematicians reeling. Terence Tao, a Fields Medalist often called the world's greatest living mathematician, says he now does very little math himself, spending most of his time as an unofficial spokesman for a field suddenly unsure of its future.
There are no rules any more. I'm just numb to what would have been jaw-dropping events for me a year ago. At some point, maybe I'll get hit by a whole wave of PTSD.
- saurabhpandit26
In a world with better economic system, such progress in Artificial Intelligence and automation would have been viewed more positively, I mean who doesnt want to work less and have AI make rapid discoveries in scientific field. Instead we are filled with anxiety and dread of what will happen to our jobs and how we will survive.
- boerseth
It's a little funny how quickly the conversation goes from "AI will never be able to {my-field}" before turning into "We cannot have AI ruining {my-field} with its obviously superior abilities"
If OpenAI had never made a push to get good at maths, we might still have a sizeable group of peopne stuck at that first line. I say that because I still hear in discussions the naive rebuttal "But we'll still need _someone_ to {one-step-up-in-hierarchy}" . Although you have to be curious now how long that sentiment can last.
The good news for those doing abstract maths might be that, now that OpenAI have proven that their AI can do the job in principle, there's probably not much left in it for them to keep going. Mathematicians should know better than anyone the lack of a direct profit motive in doing the work that they do.
(Edited for clarity)
- throwyawayyyy
Has OpenAI shared any new interesting _problems_? I.e. do more than strip-mine mathematics, as said in the article, but said: "Here is a question I cannot answer, it's interesting for this and that reason, I believe it's true for this and that reason, it's beyond me though, have at it." Has that happened yet?
- ralph84
Everyone who built an identity on being the most intelligent in the room is going to have to come to grips with that no longer being a differentiator.
- bananaflag
I find it weird to blame OpenAI for using math as a benchmark. If they hadn't done so, then in three months, say, after releasing Bel, someone else would have used math as a benchmark for it (like mathematicians already do since Fable 5 and 5.6 Sol). The result would have been the same (hundreds of open problems solved quickly).
- patcon
I feel that there are some surprising blindspots within this thread, in sympathy to mathematicians.
Don't we as tech ppl understand "purpose"? You might not feel purpose in their work, but surely you see how when it comes for your own, you might revisit why it is such an imperative that we give AI all tasks for want of speed and efficiency?
- IcyWindows
What if we meet extraterrestrial life? Would we ban them from showing us all the math they already solved and/or invented?
- rcxdude
As a counterpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKrwhjOI8Nc (though 3blue1brown has a pretty different perspective on math in general, being far more focused on popularizing and teaching it as opposed to proving new theorems)
- bagacrap
- magus-stoopr
the live video interview on numberphile comes without the New York Times' narrative filter