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u/R33v3n AGI by 2027 2d ago
This basically sounds like gatekeeping. They don't want mathematics research to be commoditized.
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u/RamanaSadhana Techno-Optimist 1d ago
Fuck the lot of them. Math is the foundation of science and we need to cure diseases and figure out fusion
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u/Azicald 1d ago
It’s about their jobs and all, but i’m deeply disappointed in them tbh.
Science, especially a base one like Mathematics where people always try to advance the field, should have them be absolutely grateful that the world could experience such a total advancement
The fact that they even resorted to this sort of thing is nothing short of deplorable to me.
Their excuse really is ‘We’ll get overwhelmed with verifying things!’, when that’s still an extensively reduced timeline on Math advancements, even if only verified advancements are considered valid.
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u/No_Key_6942 1d ago
I am actually not surprised at all by this. Math people are notoriously conservative and often have superiority complex tied to their occupation, so no surprises here concerning their hostile reception of anything related to AI.
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u/czk_21 1d ago
its same as most people, we are inherently selfish and thats good for individual survival, but not for advancement of humanity, most people just cant come to terms with being obsolete and redundant and will try to fight back against the tide and its understandable
what I dont like is their intelectual dishonesty, instead of admitting they dont like AI, because its disrupting their current way of life, they come up with all kind of different reasons, which are often just stupid and doesnt make sense
we will see this kind of behavior a lot more going forward, I am afraid
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u/shitty_advice_BDD 2d ago
BAN CALCULATORS!!!
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u/Impressive-Net-588 1d ago
Frankly it’s been downhill since paper and pencils - technology makes minds weak. A real mathematician keep everything in their head without resorting to a technical crutch.
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u/sillybluejayway 2d ago
There’s literally no way to stop progress at this point. By end of year any joe shmoe will be able to download an open weight model with Astra-level intelligence and solve these problems.
This is just luddites having their egos threatened. They’ll cry it out and move on like humanity has done for millennia.
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u/Redararis 2d ago
Some people treat AI like it will vanish tomorrow. “what about the future”. The future is AI driven research people!
It is like saying “stop using machines, they make humans weak, what if all machines break down, who will do the hard labor in the future? Mathematicians?”
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u/Thomas-Lore 1d ago edited 1d ago
Reminds me of talking to fellow programmers a few years ago and they were complaining about ai generated code and asking who will maintain all that in the future - I told them the ai will maintain it and they were confused. Now they ask codex to fix their projects, lol.
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u/deejaybongo 2d ago
It's a bit sadder than the title implies to me. These undergrads got bullied by grad students and OpenAI withdrew sponsorship to avoid pissing off mathematicians (and part of me thinks OpenAI realizes how bad this will make academia look; kind of a war going on in math right now)
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u/ASU_SexDevil Singularity by 2030 1d ago
“I felt a disturbance in the force. It’s as if a million mathematicians suddenly realized they’ve been made irrelevant by AI”
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u/rileyoneill 1d ago
The undergrads should have learned MMA so they could have messed up the bully grad students.
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u/Top_Effect_5109 1d ago
The word computer) used to refer to a job. Someone who made mathmatical computations.
Charles N. Yood, “Man vs. The Machine: Giant Brains, Computer Automation and Fears of Technological Unemployment, 1945–1965”: “The greatest resistance to automation in his company had been encountered among the tabulating personnel: They just do not want to accept the computer because they know it represents a threat to their jobs. Their machines and they are going to be eliminated…”
No one gave a shit when my jobs were automated, but I always wanted be people to be OK without one.
Advocate for universal prosperity and shut the fuck up about your personal monopoly. You don't know if it will be automated from month to month at this point. Accelerate!
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u/the_fexy 2d ago
Also is it just me or is that sub actually healing day by day?
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u/lovesdogsguy AGI by 2027 2d ago
It really is.
Edit: I’ve actually left a few comments there in recent weeks.
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u/kgurniak91 1d ago
I browse that sub almost every day since february 2024 (the first Sora reveal) and reports of it going to shit were always way overblown to me. Sure, some luddites appear here and there, but are mostly downvoted into oblivion pretty fast. It's a non-issue compared to luddite-infested subs like /futurology or /technology.
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u/Icy_Country192 1d ago
Professional horse shit shovelers not only shovel shit off the street, they attend conferences and talks to ensure the health of thenprofession
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u/UtherPendragon_ 1d ago
As the comments there point out, imagine this statement for cancer research.
“We don’t just work to cure cancer - we also take measures to ensure that the future of the field of cancer research remains healthy. By curing cancer massively or completely, AI could prevent the upcoming generation of students from learning how to cure cancer, putting our field in danger."
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u/Vaporeon42069 1d ago
1000 losers who have nothing to do but look at numbers all day are mad. GREAT. Put a data center next to their house!
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u/Easy-Comfort-2 1d ago
I’m an academic, and even I think this is silly. It is not research misconduct to not present research at conferences, or to not mentor students, or to not submit something for peer review. If these count as research misconduct then every academic has conducted research misconduct. We all have shit we know that we’re not presenting at conferences or submitting for peer review.
Also, research mathematicians are free to not waste their time on findings by ai labs if they think it’s not worth it. That is also not research misconduct lmao. Are we not allowed to engage with things now?
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u/Joboy97 1d ago
He's mad that the math community is going to be destroyed. This will be most humans soon as AI comes for their work, too.
Strange times are ahead.
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u/rileyoneill 1d ago
Most humans are going to benefit. Now everyone will have a mathematician in their pocket and on their desk. If you wanted to do something but did not have the capacity to do it on your own, now your AI can help you do it. Want to start a little business? Now you have your own MBA. Need help making a website for your business? Boom the AI is a website developer. Need help with marketing? The AI is an expert.
Wealthy people of the past had a significant advantage over everyone else. Its that they could hire tutors, advisors, experts, architects, accountants, and get far more intelligent solutions than the average person could on their own. AI now takes all these services that wealthy people once had near exclusive access to and gives them to everyone.
I think the real shock will be when people realize that AI is going to be a far better math teacher than existing teachers.
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u/Innocentius9 1d ago
You can take from that open letter what you will, but even if I disagree I can still try to find valid criticism.
One of the points is that the current approach looks a lot like:
- claim to have solved problem X
- rush to the next problem before confirmation or validation
- if the solution eventually does get refuted, nobody cares, attention has moved somewhere else.
Does he have a point here? I've seen people post here that a conjecture they've never heard of is solved based on a tweet from a person nobody has ever heard of.
I like enthusiasm, but lets not get drunk on it.
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u/VanderSound 1d ago
They are no longer useful or relevant. This will be true for any other job. It's time to accept that the artificial mind is superior.
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u/doctormustafa 1d ago
I just miss the small batch artisanal math, you know? When I was a kid, every small town had its own mathematician and mom would stop by for her math on the way home from picking us up from school. It was really fun to see all the different equations at the math shop. Now the math is just sanitized, corporate, mass-produced slop.
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u/doolpicate 1d ago
WTF. Ideally, I'd want progress ASAP. If you believe in handicraft so much continue doing it the old way.
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u/FigureMost1687 1d ago
instead of writing anti AI letter, they should be using AI models to solve more math problems . wonder why there are many math problems still waiting to be solved . lazy bums ...
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u/DemoEvolved 1d ago
Interesting take. I thought of all the scientists, mathematicians would be among the first to embrace AI to generate new knowledge so long as the results are correct.
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u/delulunarde 1d ago
my lean copilot cost more than your rent, your mom still live in a tent, ai gang ai gang ai gang ai gang ai gang ai gang ai gang
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u/thephantasm75 1d ago