18 ms·

I think everyone is conflating a few things: * (1) Mathematics, the true things known by humans * Mathematics, the things that are true * (3) Mathematics, th

by wrsh07 6d ago

I think everyone is conflating a few things: * (1) Mathematics, the true things known by humans * Mathematics, the things that are true * (3) Mathematics, the institution which gets funding and manages resources to expand and maintain 1 AI agents can discover more true things, but that doesn't necessarily expand 1 and it might undermine 3 If someone is worried about 3 and you're talking about 2, then you are talking past each other

formerlyknownas 6d ago
Yes, these things are definitely being conflated and there's a fourth conflated thing I think Tao is particular getting at: (4) Mathematics, the community which is a living system that decides what is interesting, constructs shared frameworks, transfers ideas between domains, develops taste, teaches new mathematicians, and continually emphasizes what counts as important mathematics, especially in it's overall value to humanity. This is the level in which theory building, simplification, integration and applications are built on. Contributing meaningfully here requires much more than generating solutions - it requires direction and restraint. Tao seems to be saying that this direction and restraint is the scarce resource that drives mathematical progress, not problem-solving ability. And AI is not only insufficient at it, but results generated by AI are destroying human ability to excercise this resource. This seems similar to another problem AI sucks at - drafting legal agreements. Despite being great at evaluating, interpreting, and comparing legal agreements it fails amazingly at drafting them. This is because what you don't say/do is vastly more important than what you do say/do. And AI is great saying and doing things, it's the selection based on implied values that it struggles with.

18 ms·

I think everyone is conflating a few things: * (1) Mathematics, the true things known by humans * Mathematics, the things that are true * (3) Mathematics, th

by wrsh07 6d ago

formerlyknownas 6d ago
Yes, these things are definitely being conflated and there's a fourth conflated thing I think Tao is particular getting at: (4) Mathematics, the community which is a living system that decides what is interesting, constructs shared frameworks, transfers ideas between domains, develops taste, teaches new mathematicians, and continually emphasizes what counts as important mathematics, especially in it's overall value to humanity. This is the level in which theory building, simplification, integration and applications are built on. Contributing meaningfully here requires much more than generating solutions - it requires direction and restraint. Tao seems to be saying that this direction and restraint is the scarce resource that drives mathematical progress, not problem-solving ability. And AI is not only insufficient at it, but results generated by AI are destroying human ability to excercise this resource. This seems similar to another problem AI sucks at - drafting legal agreements. Despite being great at evaluating, interpreting, and comparing legal agreements it fails amazingly at drafting them. This is because what you don't say/do is vastly more important than what you do say/do. And AI is great saying and doing things, it's the selection based on implied values that it struggles with.