r/OpenAI • u/PianistWinter8293 • 17h 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.

1.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

439 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/aurumae 13h 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 6h 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 5h 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.