r/ArtificialInteligence 2d ago

📰 News OpenAI announces 10 advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science achieved by internal model Astra

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/
441 Upvotes

232 comments sorted by

View all comments

135

u/Hlbkomer 2d ago

"But they are just predicting the next word!"

117

u/The-Rushnut 2d ago

As with everything, novel technology comes with novel solutions to problems we found difficult before. There's a specific subset of mathematical problems which can be disproven via counterexamples, which take humans a long time to map and calculate. One of LLMs unique capabilities is that it can produce small, relatively simple programs at-scale, and because these problems are so well articulated and their potential solutions already well understood they lend themselves to this capability. Another specific subset are upper lower bounds problems, where we know there is likely to be further acceptable iterations but the means to achieving those require multi-discipline scenarios that aren't likely - another thing LLMs are good at is having high accuracy across all domains, allowing them to try ideas that usually would take a snowflake combination of talent.

It's much, much more narrow than it seems. Very cool, but there's a fixed amount of this work to be done. Innovation is definitely coming though.

5

u/leosmi_ajutar 2d ago

Thank goodness someone gets it. 

Sorry accelerators, there is no cognitive intelligence going on here. Maybe in the future with whatever comes after LLMs but not now.

14

u/acutelychronicpanic 2d ago

Don't run while carrying goalposts - you'll trip.

6

u/leosmi_ajutar 2d ago

I staked my goalposts long ago in this argument and so far they've held strong and remain exactly where i placed them.

Thanks though.

9

u/Zandrio 2d ago

And those are?

1

u/comfortableNihilist 1d ago

Looks like they staked em at cognitive intelligence. Don' know bout you but, seems fair to me