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> something that few years ago was decades away. There's no way of knowing this - I see articles fairly often on HN of mathematicians (sometimes grad students
by greggoB 5mo ago
> something that few years ago was decades away.
There's no way of knowing this - I see articles fairly often on HN of mathematicians (sometimes grad students or younger) solving problems where progress previously had stalled.
- azan_ 5mo agoWhat I meant was not that these problems wouldn't get solved for decades, but that few years ago (before advent of LLMs) if you've asked average researcher how far away are we from AI solving unsolved math problems, the median answer would be that we are far, far away from that.
- greggoB 5mo agoIf that's how your comment was meant, it seems an odd reply to the parent comment, which is firmly critical of AI's impact on society, not really debating about the progress of the technology.
- azan_ 5mo agoI suggest you read the parent comment again. The poster clearly was laughing at the capabilities of AI and its utility: > the value in having a personal assistant AI agent that can lie about the time for your appointment and autonomously delete your entire calendar
- greggoB 5mo agoSure, but 1) they're clearly being quite facetious with the above, and 2) it is also pretty clearly contextualised by the rest of what they said, which is making an equally sarcastic comment about how much AI is costing society. The overall template is "look at how much we're giving away, but hey guess it's worth it for <insert stupid reasons here>". Instead of immediately listing off whatever instance AI has shown some value in isolation, it might be worth considering its net effect on society as a whole. IMO that picture is not so rosy.