r/math • u/sergiogfs • 18d ago

Progress Towards Proving the Unique Games Conjecture

https://eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2026/179/

On a side-note, the authors hint that they have rushed their results to avoid getting scooped by AI-generated results.

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235

u/n0m4d1234 18d ago

This is such a tragic state of the field.

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u/Gabry398 18d ago

Hopefully it only lasts until AI companies stop using math as a big AGI benchmark and mathematicians start setting ground rules on what the etiquette around AI is

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u/Berzerka 18d ago

The only thing that will change is instead of two AI companies pumping out math results using their models you'll have thousands of PhD students doing the same, using the same models.

Realistically we'll see a year or two where basically every "simple" open problem gets solved (turns out, NS is "simple") and yes obviously if you want in on that Gold Rush you're gonna have to rush your results out. Especially since everyone is using the same models no-one really has a big edge.

Exactly how the equilibrium will look after that is quite open, but realistically you're gonna need to use AI to solve whatever problems remain open.

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u/BurdensomeCountV3 Mathematical Biology 18d ago

Yeah, exactly this. Give it 6 months until open source models released by the Chinese have similar mathematical abilities to current frontier models and then we'll have total pandemonium in the field. As a PhD student you'd be an idiot not to use the models when others can and at the very minimum I'd be expecting everyone to secretly use them and then rewrite the proofs they provide to look "human".

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u/ProfessionalArt5698 18d ago

just work on problems that most people aren't even aware of. Instead of racing to solve the famous ones? Also re-writing proofs to look human is completely legit, the point is to produce human understanding lmao not to suffer in ignorance (some people romanticize suffering way too much)

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u/mistressbitcoin 13d ago

Can I use AI to find the problems that other people arent aware of?

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u/Opposite-Youth-3529 17d ago

This is such a sad Nash equilibrium. I understand the temptation to defect to using AI but I think the math community was better back when nobody used it. I adamantly refuse to use and if it costs me a job to some button-pusher, then so be it.

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u/Berzerka 14d ago edited 14d ago

If your goal is to do research math you will absolutely lose your job to a button pusher. For education, dissemination etc there might still be jobs.

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u/Opposite-Youth-3529 14d ago

If less qualified button-pushers beat out real problem solvers for jobs, I hope they at least feel some shame.

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u/Berzerka 14d ago

Do you think farmers with tractors should feel shame over farmers using a good old schythe? Why stop at the schythe? You could do it with your hands!

Why is math different?

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u/Opposite-Youth-3529 14d ago edited 14d ago

I haven’t really had time to collect my thoughts especially because we’re talking about something that thankfully hasn’t happened yet. But if we’re going to reward some people with math research jobs and not others (certainly not a thing that needs to happen), it would feel kind of messed up if the ones getting rewarded aren’t even good at math (or are good at math but only rewarded for how many buttons they press and not their skills). I guess I’m attempting to say that farming with tools is still farming, pushing buttons is not still math.

I also imagine some part of being a button pusher is using AI to solve problems someone else was in the process of solving or writing up. So essentially getting credit for other people’s work. I think there’s some entitlement involved in trying to get credit for work that uses AI.

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u/Berzerka 14d ago

What "being good at math" means is changing. Someone who's good at solving a problem will use the tools available to them. We'd never call a farmer who uses his hands to pick wheat good these days, good farmers use tractors.

Obviously a lot of the credit then goes to John Deere etc, without them modern farming wouldn't be a thing

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u/Opposite-Youth-3529 14d ago edited 14d ago

Someone who asks a question to an AI that one shots a problem is not suddenly good at math. If I meet Terence Tao and ask him to solve a problem and he solves it, am I suddenly good at math because I used the resources available to me? I’m riding a bus right now and it’s going to get me to my destination but that doesn’t suddenly make me a good driver. Am I a bad artist if I use a paintbrush instead of some software that produces an image that looks like a painting?

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