3 ms·

No, you're misunderstanding the perspective. They believe the journey is a learning experience greatly beneficial to the field, and that this experience rather

No, you're misunderstanding the perspective. They believe the journey is a learning experience greatly beneficial to the field, and that this experience rather than the headline result is where most of the value lies. They don't think mathematical progress consists primarily of finding answers to unresolved questions, so they don't think the average person will benefit if only this narrow kind of progress is made.

srcreigh 14d ago
No, this cannot be the actual issue. Most math textbooks have solutions in the back. That didn't wreck peoples ability to learn math, did it? So we are left to speculate about why solutions in appendix are fine, but LLM solving open problems is not fine.
- SpicyLemonZest 14d ago
  I'm not sure what's getting lost in translation here. The answer is quite clear: math textbooks are valued based on their ability to help readers understand mathematical principles, not based on the number or complexity of problems that they contain solutions to. If an AI lab announced they've released a new calculus textbook with hundreds of new integrals a human has never found before, that wouldn't be terribly exciting, because we all understand that finding new integrals isn't that important and not the point of textbooks anyway.
  - srcreigh 14d ago
    LLMs can help people understand mathematical principles too. The idea that when LLMs produce solutions, people won’t try to understand them and won’t learn from it, is obviously not true. Terry Tao himself spent time digesting and simplifying LLM proofs. So again we’re left to speculate what the actual problem is. Math understanding will increase with LLMs. Not just professional mathematicians but amateurs.
    - SpicyLemonZest 13d ago
      Again, we’re not left to speculate, they’re being quite clear. I think you’re struggling to understand what Tao and his cosignatories are saying because you’ve acquired a very specific kind of “AI-pilled” mindset from social media, where taking AI seriously implies accepting LLMs should be used at any time for any purpose. They’re saying in great detail that LLM solutions are unhelpful when presented in a particular way, but you can’t help but hear them saying that LLM solutions aren’t helpful at all, even as you rightly point out that this makes no sense and is inconsistent with their observed behavior.

srcreigh 14d ago

No, this cannot be the actual issue. Most math textbooks have solutions in the back. That didn't wreck peoples ability to learn math, did it? So we are left to speculate about why solutions in appendix are fine, but LLM solving open problems is not fine.

SpicyLemonZest 14d ago
I'm not sure what's getting lost in translation here. The answer is quite clear: math textbooks are valued based on their ability to help readers understand mathematical principles, not based on the number or complexity of problems that they contain solutions to. If an AI lab announced they've released a new calculus textbook with hundreds of new integrals a human has never found before, that wouldn't be terribly exciting, because we all understand that finding new integrals isn't that important and not the point of textbooks anyway.
- srcreigh 14d ago
  LLMs can help people understand mathematical principles too. The idea that when LLMs produce solutions, people won’t try to understand them and won’t learn from it, is obviously not true. Terry Tao himself spent time digesting and simplifying LLM proofs. So again we’re left to speculate what the actual problem is. Math understanding will increase with LLMs. Not just professional mathematicians but amateurs.
  - SpicyLemonZest 13d ago
    Again, we’re not left to speculate, they’re being quite clear. I think you’re struggling to understand what Tao and his cosignatories are saying because you’ve acquired a very specific kind of “AI-pilled” mindset from social media, where taking AI seriously implies accepting LLMs should be used at any time for any purpose. They’re saying in great detail that LLM solutions are unhelpful when presented in a particular way, but you can’t help but hear them saying that LLM solutions aren’t helpful at all, even as you rightly point out that this makes no sense and is inconsistent with their observed behavior.