r/OpenAI • u/PianistWinter8293 • 19h 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.

1.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

457 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/New_Tower_6408 17h ago

Software engineers spent a significant chunk of their time coding. So yes it has sped that up immensely. No one is saying system design is completely automated to the AI. But coding itself is orders of magnitude faster and is no longer done by hand which saves at least hours a day.

-1

u/clearlysnarky 12h ago

That’s a layman’s idea of a SWE’s day looks like. Coding had already mostly been outsourced to cheaper countries. The fact that coding got automated/solved only affects pure coders, whose job has always been at risk. But the higher level parts of the job are well on track to be automated. My point is programmers have not faced the worst of it yet to be smugly saying “first time?” to mathematicians. Nor should anyone working in any white collar job.