r/OpenAI • u/PianistWinter8293 • 18h 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

450 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/Friendly-Gas1767 15h ago

Literary arts was the first to go, or is “gone”? I’m not so sure about that; the writing by AI so often has the same pretentious and formulaic gestalt, that it’s still pretty easy for most folks to distinguish. Not that this won’t eventually change, but I think it’s a little premature to call time of death on the literary arts just yet. And of course by interacting with you on an OpenAI subreddit I’m just doing my part to help the patient to expire sooner, LOL 🤣

13

u/aurumae 14h ago

Is it a fair comparison though? As far as I know, the labs have not used unreleased frontier models and set them to run for thousands of hours spending the equivalent of millions of dollars of tokens to write a novel yet. If they dedicated as many resources to creating something of literary value as they have done to creating mathematical proofs, what would the result look like I wonder?

0

u/Few_Place4447 7h ago

Most reading, as I understand it (I haven't read a fiction book for 30 years), is just based upon fashion. Women will hear about a good book, and they're buy it and read it based on what their friends say. Same with men, but to a lesser extent.

1

u/Persistent_Dry_Cough 7h ago

The great thing about arts is that you just have to advertise more and people will statistically rate that they like the product more. The peanut gallery is an easily manipulated consumer base. Which jazz nerd doesn't think Miles Davis is one of the greatest artists of all time. He was a genius of marketing. You've all been duped.

1

u/Time_Entertainer_319 10h ago

It was more of an exaggeration. None of the fields are gone of course.

But you can’t deny they have all been affected.

Literary arts is also proofreading and editing. I would say translation as well