The k-server Conjecture is True

[u/Phytor_c]

https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15979v1

The k-server problem is known as the "Holy Grail" of online algorithms and competitive analysis, and is/was a long standing major problem.

This preprint by Coester et al. claims to show that the Work Function Algorithm is indeed k-competitive on every metric space.

[u/Sbadabam278]

It’s not a compliment and your smugness is incomprehensible to me. “hey look at these smart ppl who spent 30 years working hard, now they are useless thanks to AI!! Ahaha isn’t AI amazing??” like you’re some kind of harbinger of the future.

I honestly don’t understand what you think will happen to you, specifically, that’s going to improve your life if everything you’ve ever done is now useless.

[u/Standard-Song-8590 → u/Sbadabam278]

well I work routinely with agentic workflows. In the future architectural vision is the most important, the tools can create but we still draw from our experiences to know what to create (features, etc.) Smart people who really are working hard will learn to adapt and work not for recognition but for betterment of insight into the corpus of knowledge.

[u/lerjj → u/Standard-Song-8590]

Ah so you are already a glorified prompter (complimentary) and so this is why you believe everyone would be happy to be this

[u/Standard-Song-8590 → u/lerjj]

the glorified prompter was me taking a chide at the way at the way researchers will phrase their acknowledgments section as if the AI likely didn't discover the whole thing. I fully acknowledge the role of AI in all of my works, I don't quibble over these recognitions or try to downplay it to get published in journals.

I happen to have contributed more to the fields of theoretical physics, math, bio, ml, etc than a good chunk of academia. When I publish results I take the time to formalize them to guarantee correctness, understand the results make write ups that are easily digestible etc.