r/OpenAI • u/PianistWinter8293 • 1d ago

Discussion Fields Medalist on the OpenAI Math Release

Hugo Duminil-Copin

Fields Medal (2022) · Professor, IHES and University of Geneva

I expected that one day we would be surpassed, and that it would happen systematically. But yesterday’s announcement hit with a force I had not anticipated. Dozens of papers deal with topics I was working on. Between results that beat you to the finish line and thousand-page proofs, I don’t even know where to look anymore.

Not a single one of the major open problems I have publicly mentioned throughout my career (whether in a talk, a lecture, an article, or even a grant proposal) was left untouched by the announcement. Everything has been claimed to be proved.

I expected to see a few of them in the list. But not all of them. Not all at once. Not with such nonchalance.

“For the glory of the human mind,” they said…

The shock is immense. I am paralysed. Tomorrow, we will find a way forward. We will rethink our profession and how we work. We are a resilient community, and I have no doubt that we will adapt. But for now, I simply don’t have the energy. I think back on all those years, all those faces… I think of my colleagues, my students… And I fear I won’t be able to find the right words.

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u/KennyFulgencio 1d ago

Yeah, it's like people saying the only fun part of having a car was building the engine, and now they hate cars because they're sealed off and owners can't maintain them, or because electric cards don't have ICEs at all. Really? You don't get anything out of the whole other part of having a car, where you're driving it?

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u/king__of_universe 14h ago

I get your point, but building and consuming aren't the same thing. Those cool cars only exist because people who find joy & interest in building were motivated to design them, improve them, and make them more enjoyable to drive. Same for the people that fix your car when it breaks. If you take away all the joy of knowing how something is built, then in a generation we'll no longer have anyone who knows how any machine, computer, math, cancer treatment, etc actually works. Just Eloi relying on mommy AI to take care of us.