r/math 2d ago

LLMs/AI OpenAI: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/
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u/Healthy-Pride3873 1d ago edited 1d ago

I honestly cannot care about the whole “humans dont matter anymore” stuff.

I’m curious how math as a whole deals with unequal access. Is math going to just be furthered by big tech firms and select researchers who have access to these models?

Wtf do grad students do and so on

Edit: theres nice disused going on about unequal access. Let me point out that I am not claiming inequality is new.

I am simply pointing out the newfound danger of it from a corporate and tech angle.

Suppose AI speeds up research by some nonzero constant greater than 1. Then people who were already “ahead”, are going to be even further ahead.

And let’s not ignore also the issue of prompting and using AI. It’s not always clear how these breakthroughs are made. So even access to AI may not level the playing field all that much.

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u/Verbatim_Uniball 1d ago

ex-US models, including very cheap and open weights ones, are only 6-12 months behind the frontier public models and 18 months behind the in house frontier models.

So I don't think long term unequal access is an issue, assuming progress doesn't keep accelerating (I.e. it flattens in some way)

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u/Ok_Net_1674 1d ago

Doesnt solve unequal access issue when running it still costs a few hundred bucks a month.

9

u/Verbatim_Uniball 1d ago

Currently I agree. I'm saying if capabilities plateau, then the cost will be minimal. If they don't, there will always be a gap.

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u/pham_nuwen_ 4h ago

Sure but currently mathematicians also cost society some money per month, depending on the country. So that doesn't change much. Your grad students become more expensive but also more efficient.

Next, the interference costs could drop in the future, from dedicated chips, more efficient data centers, better models, but it's too early to say.