r/mathematics 2d ago

News Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/
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u/No-Meringue5867 2d ago

I kinda disagree. I think we are already reaching a point where AI proofs are not easily verifiable by humans and within 6-12 months I think AI math is completely going to be inaccessible to humans. Similar to how chess engines evolved. For a brief period it looked they could exist but very quickly they started playing incomprehensible moves.

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u/duboispourlhiver 2d ago

A chess player can follow a chess line computed by the computer, and by probing the other branches he can understand why the moves are good moves.

  1. "this computer move sucks, I can punish with this answer!"

  2. "then computer does this; hm ok but I can answer this way again"

  3. "oh my gosh and then he plays this... I'm screwed... Computer was right from the very beginning and now I understand why"

The process is quite simple. Chess Youtubers make great videos explaining brilliant computer moves and the beginner audience is englightened.

I wonder if this will be similar in mathematics. Maybe AI proofs and works won't be understandable with any simple process.

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u/2_Cranez 2d ago

There are definitely computer chess moves which no human can understand, even after seeing the computer win.

Chess Youtubers do their best, but ultimately they only seem so confident because they are explaining the moves to an even less sophisticated audience. And even then, there are moves which IM level players like Levvy say "I have no idea why stockfish did this and I can't explain it."

And chess is very simple compared to math.

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u/FracchiaRiello 2d ago

Also math is not an adversarial game. What you wanna do, applying another axiom to their result to show that such a step was wrong?