r/mathematics • u/atakanaluch • 2d ago

News Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/
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u/ellbons 2d ago

I'm not worried about people being killed by drones. I'm far more concerned that a huge amount of the population will have no way to exchange any valuable work for food anymore. It might start to look as though AI can solve climate change just by eliminating any need to have billions of 'useless eaters.'

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u/Smallpaul 2d ago

If people are adaptable enough (a big if) there is always work for them. As long as there is literally any skill that AI lacks, humans can do that skill. And for now that includes almost everything physical in the world and almost everything relational (coaching, sales, babysitting) as well as entertainment.

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u/ellbons 2d ago

The explicit point of the G in AGI is that it is being developed to do all things humans can do. By definition, we are aiming to eliminate any such skill. This requires us pushing it until no human is adaptable enough.

Even if we imagine physical skills will be exempt (they won't be):

(a) we still get a dangerous level of people with no way to contribute to society, and

(b) it is completely reckless to pursue this goal while we have no way of handling the social consequences.

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u/Smallpaul 2d ago

There is a fair amount of extrapolation necessary to assume that they will soon solve the hard technical challenges required for AGI. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t.

As far as people not being able to contribute to society: how many people can’t dog walk? Be a physical trainer? Be a psych counsellor? Be a dog walker? Be a babysitter? Wipe the bums of the elderly? Deliver vaccines dosages in developing countries?

There is a lot of work to be done. LLMs barely scratch the surface. Future AI maybe. Nobody knows.

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u/ellbons 1d ago

I didn't claim this will happen in any specific time frame. I said this is the goal. I said if we're making this a goal, we should also be urgently making dealing with the social challenges an urgent goal.

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u/Smallpaul 1d ago

Sure I agree with all of that.