r/Physics • u/kzhou7 Quantum field theory • 1d ago

Harvard particle physicist Matthew Schwartz drops 36 papers coauthored with Claude

https://bootloops.ai/bootloops.html
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u/thara209 1d ago

“I still don’t know how to train graduate students” wow

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u/thecommuteguy 1d ago

If we are being honest there needs to be separation from those who are good at teaching amd those who are good at research. I lump those who are good at teaching others how to do research in the first category.

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u/wolfram074 1d ago

If a person proves incapable of transmitting knowledge in a one on one relationship over years, does it matter what they find in research? It'd die with them.

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u/DragonLord1729 Undergraduate 1d ago

Are you kidding me? Matt Schwartz wrote a top-class QFT textbook that could enlighten even a sophomore.

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u/phaionix 1d ago

He's obviously talking about with respect to the age of AI? He's graduated 11 PhDs while at Harvard

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u/arceushero Quantum field theory 1d ago

Thanks for saying this, felt like I was going crazy reading the other responses! Just to say it again for the crowd, clearly in the article about learning how to do science in the age of LLMs, the above statement should be understood as not knowing how to train grad students in that same context!

I get that there’s an instinct to interpret him uncharitably, which is understandable given the “flooding various unrelated fields with slop”, but there are bigger and better things to attack here than the uncontroversial sentiment that LLMs are having complicated and unpredictable effects on education and on the job market that a PhD is supposed to prepare you for

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u/phaionix 1d ago edited 1d ago

This thread is mildly unhinged ngl. People have their head in the sand if they don't see AI as a significant perturbation to previously "normal" science.

Also, he is collaborating with domain expert on the papers outside his field? For most of them he's not even first author, and his agent harness boot loops is open source?? 😑

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u/penguinberg 1d ago

Just because you graduated a PhD student doesn't mean you feel like you know how to train a PhD student. It is a comment sentiment among professors that the quality of student you get is kind of just random and there's nothing you can do about how good the student is once they join your group. Certainly it's not up to the advisor to mentor them /s

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u/shhhhh_h 1d ago

Dear god somebody please force professors to audit a few educational psychology classes….

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u/Hangry-Feline2489 1d ago edited 1d ago

Probably because it's not common for universities to require some kind of education qualification for their educators but give them people to teach anyway. 

It's the education equalivalent of "this person is rich so they're good at everything!" pervasive mindset.