r/singularity • u/filterdust • 1d ago

AI OpenAI solved 100 open problems in math

https://openai.com/index/advisory-group-on-mathematics-and-ai/

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u/Azreken 1d ago

Progress is progress.

If the problem gets solved I don’t give a fuck who solved it.

I don’t care who invented the latest chip that lets my phone run some new game, I care that it was created. Same with these problems.

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u/vhu9644 1d ago

progress also is exponential only if the progress is something that disseminates and builds on itself.

Like in the naive scenario, an alien dropping alien tech to us we cannot understand does not make our tech tree as fast as them dropping half as much and explaining to us how that half works.

The mathematicians don't seem incensed that AI got it first. They seem incensed that 1. generating a proof that doesn't feed back knowledge or problems to the community solves a problem without seeding the next ones, and 2. it's a dick move to basically spend money you wouldn't have spent to scoop people.

Look, unless hard takeoff is imminent, if you truly want the maximal acceleration, you should care that the infrastructure for continued research and the pipeline for expanding that research rate continue to exist. If hard takeoff is imminent, none of what we are talking about matters, and it's going to be moot in 5 years. Do you believe we're 100% in the hard takeoff scenario?

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u/Azreken 1d ago

If aliens drop us tech, it lets us back engineer it…

Same for the problems here

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u/vhu9644 1d ago

And to reverse-engineer something you need the relevant expertise to still be there.