Ask HN: AI and Math

Posted by ekm2 22 hours ago

Since AI is getting smarter by the day,would it not be more profitable for both man and machine for it to come up with more,harder Millenium problems?

Comments

Comment by rajeasy 8 hours ago

Even though AI is getting better at math and can solve harder problems, the question remains: is it truly useful? While it might eliminate bottlenecks in research, most new problems solved by AI are just byproducts with no incremental benefit.

Comment by kva 21 hours ago

The AI industry is monofocused on difficulty over utility. The NS problem is hard, but it is also useful if solved in a way that it illuminates a lot of areas of math, gives us new techniques etc.

Brute forcing a counter solve has not really changed the game as much.

Comment by idontwantthis 22 hours ago

Who would that be for? If AI comes up with problems that humans don’t understand and solves them, what does anyone gain?

Comment by atleastoptimal 21 hours ago

Knowing whether something or true or isn't true is useful for other lines of inquiry, often practical. For example, a lot could be gained by determining whether P = NP.

Also an initial, cumbersome, complex proof is the first step to a more understandable, formalized proof. AI created a formal proof of Fermat's last theorem. I'm sure the initial proof was not comprehensible to all but a small subset of mathematicians anyway.