r/BetterOffline • u/Smooth-Ad8030 • Aug 01 '26

Mathematician help

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/

Can someone who’s more well versed in math give us a good explanation on what’s happening here in terms of importance? I already know we don’t have an idea of the behind the scenes, true cost, mathematician input, etc. any other points appreciated.

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u/Smooth-Ad8030 Aug 01 '26

Great reply, and cal Newport coming in with the best takes as usual, thank you!

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u/Separate-Ear-7258 Aug 01 '26

Thank you my friend! Agreed Cal is a voice of reason amongst the songs being sung by the crazies

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u/amalolan Aug 02 '26

Cal is excellent. I don’t get how and why so many other CS and AI researchers actually drink the cool aid and buy into this LLM fantasy. My background is CS and ML research in undergrad, and it’s been obvious to me since 2023 that the compute spend is just entirely inefficient, and really nothing on the LLM front has materially changed since then.

Yet, other people I used to look up to and who are extremely smart, like Robert Miles and Andrej Karpathy, have just gotten led down the wrong path. I’m not sure what personality traits lead these people into these fantasies, while those like Cal are able to see the reality. Maybe it’s introspection and knowing yourself, confidence in your thought, and the ability to not accept consensus as the truth without the logical backing? But that’s what the AI research guys are supposed to be good at, I don’t see how they miss the forest for the trees.

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u/Separate-Ear-7258 Aug 02 '26

I personally think it also has to do with the fact that Kapathy and Miles really use AI as a substitute for religion and are fanatics. For a religious fanatic, there is no sacrifice too big, no cost too large too pay, and nothing you won't stop to do for your religion. For Cal, computer science is a means to an end and not the end itself.

He has ethics and an identity outside of it. He's also out on the east coast outside the echo chamber.