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You could say that about every scientific/mathematical breakthrough. Einstein's Special relativity depended heavily on Lorentz's work, the Michelson-Morley expe

You could say that about every scientific/mathematical breakthrough. Einstein's Special relativity depended heavily on Lorentz's work, the Michelson-Morley experiments, Maxwell's equations. Grigori Perelman, the only person to have solved a Millenium Prize problem, noted how his work was only possible due to Richard S. Hamilton's work on Ricci flow. Most scientific breakthroughs are just the completing the last 5% of work already done, but that last 5% is very hard and still only happens very rarely. That an AI was able to synthesize all the work and bring it forward is evidence that AI can make novel progress on the same level as renown mathematicians.

deleted 7d ago
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LogicFailsMe 7d ago
Einstein literally stated he was not influenced by the Michelson-Morley experiments, but it's a common myth that he was. "When Ι asked him how he had learned of the Michelson Morley experiment, he told me that he had become aware of it through writings of Η. Α. Lοrentz, but only after 1905 had it come to his attention! "Otherwise" he said, "I would have mentioned it in my paper!" indeed, Einstein's 1905 paper contains no mention of Μichelson's experiment or references to Lorentz's papers." From https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/89375/did-einstein-know-about-the-michelson-morley-experiment https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/89375/did-einste... Correcting a professor at MIT (head of the department alas) on this erroneous belief during a grad school interview cost me admission as he insisted otherwise and wouldn't back down. Ironically, one of my college professors was interviewed on NPR a week later and confirmed what I had stated. Ask me what I think of checked out, tenured academics. Go ahead...
- atleastoptimal 7d ago
  That may be true, but Lorentz specifically cited the MM experiments and was influenced by them, and Einstein cited and was influenced by Lorentz, so he was influenced, just one level removed. >https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-663-19510-8_1 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-663-19510-8_...
  - LogicFailsMe 7d ago
    Which he only became aware of after the paper...
    - atleastoptimal 7d ago
      In this 1905 special relativity paper he mentions "the Lorentzian electrodynamics and optics of moving bodies" https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf
      - LogicFailsMe 7d ago
        And did you read the footnote on the first page? "The preceding memoir by Lorentz was not at this time known to the author."
- bomewish 7d ago
  It may also have been a social test — ie the polite thing to do in that circumstance is to say “oh wow, I thought I knew that one, weird. I’ll have to look that up again thank you” even if you know 100% that you’re correct. Weird social expectation thing.
  - LogicFailsMe 7d ago
    It was the 1980s and that very well may have been what was going on, but if that's the game they're going to play then I have better places to play games. Ironically, I got several apologies from other MIT professors a few years later who ended up working with me on various things.
znnajdla 7d ago
> That an AI was able to synthesize all the work and bring it forward But that's not what it did. A mathematician literally prompted it towards that, helping it every step of the way for years. And only the mathematician was able to make the AI do that. Anybody else with the same AI could not do the same thing. If you think it was the AI that solved a Millennium Prize, then why don't you try using ChatGPT to get a Millennium Prize?
- atleastoptimal 7d ago
  >If you think it was the AI that solved a Millennium Prize, then why don't you try using ChatGPT to get a Millennium Prize? The model which did the NS solution is not yet available to the public, and it required over 15 million dollars of tokens (based on API pricing) to produce the solution. >And only the mathematician was able to make the AI do that. Anybody else with the same AI could not do the same thing. That is only speculation, the total sum of the prompt's help to the model could have just been suggesting research directions. Also mathematicians talk to each other and use/learn from each others' research all the time. Should every mathematician, in order to produce a "legitimate" proof, lock themselves in a room for the entire duration of their work and ensure no one else helped?

deleted 7d ago

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LogicFailsMe 7d ago

Einstein literally stated he was not influenced by the Michelson-Morley experiments, but it's a common myth that he was. "When Ι asked him how he had learned of the Michelson Morley experiment, he told me that he had become aware of it through writings of Η. Α. Lοrentz, but only after 1905 had it come to his attention! "Otherwise" he said, "I would have mentioned it in my paper!" indeed, Einstein's 1905 paper contains no mention of Μichelson's experiment or references to Lorentz's papers." From https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/89375/did-einstein-know-about-the-michelson-morley-experiment https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/89375/did-einste... Correcting a professor at MIT (head of the department alas) on this erroneous belief during a grad school interview cost me admission as he insisted otherwise and wouldn't back down. Ironically, one of my college professors was interviewed on NPR a week later and confirmed what I had stated. Ask me what I think of checked out, tenured academics. Go ahead...

atleastoptimal 7d ago
That may be true, but Lorentz specifically cited the MM experiments and was influenced by them, and Einstein cited and was influenced by Lorentz, so he was influenced, just one level removed. >https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-663-19510-8_1 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-663-19510-8_...
- LogicFailsMe 7d ago
  Which he only became aware of after the paper...
  - atleastoptimal 7d ago
    In this 1905 special relativity paper he mentions "the Lorentzian electrodynamics and optics of moving bodies" https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf
    - LogicFailsMe 7d ago
      And did you read the footnote on the first page? "The preceding memoir by Lorentz was not at this time known to the author."
bomewish 7d ago
It may also have been a social test — ie the polite thing to do in that circumstance is to say “oh wow, I thought I knew that one, weird. I’ll have to look that up again thank you” even if you know 100% that you’re correct. Weird social expectation thing.
- LogicFailsMe 7d ago
  It was the 1980s and that very well may have been what was going on, but if that's the game they're going to play then I have better places to play games. Ironically, I got several apologies from other MIT professors a few years later who ended up working with me on various things.

znnajdla 7d ago

> That an AI was able to synthesize all the work and bring it forward But that's not what it did. A mathematician literally prompted it towards that, helping it every step of the way for years. And only the mathematician was able to make the AI do that. Anybody else with the same AI could not do the same thing. If you think it was the AI that solved a Millennium Prize, then why don't you try using ChatGPT to get a Millennium Prize?

atleastoptimal 7d ago
>If you think it was the AI that solved a Millennium Prize, then why don't you try using ChatGPT to get a Millennium Prize? The model which did the NS solution is not yet available to the public, and it required over 15 million dollars of tokens (based on API pricing) to produce the solution. >And only the mathematician was able to make the AI do that. Anybody else with the same AI could not do the same thing. That is only speculation, the total sum of the prompt's help to the model could have just been suggesting research directions. Also mathematicians talk to each other and use/learn from each others' research all the time. Should every mathematician, in order to produce a "legitimate" proof, lock themselves in a room for the entire duration of their work and ensure no one else helped?