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Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#201

Post by heresie-dabord »

userbinator wrote: post #13

The LLM took an entirely different route, using a formula that was well known in related parts of math, but which no one had thought to apply to this type of question. Of course LLMs are still absolutely useless at actual maths computation, but I think this is one area where AI can excel --- the ability to combine many sources of knowledge and synthesise, may sometimes yield very useful results. Also reminds me of th…

> "a broken clock is right twice a day"

and homo sapiens, glancing at the clock when it happens to be right, may conjure an entire zodiac to explain it.

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#202

Post by esjeon »

shybear wrote: post #139

It seems like alot of scientific advancements occurred by someone applying technique X from one field to problem Y in another. I feel like LLMs are much better at making these types of connections than humans because they 1) know about many more theories/approaches than a single human can 2) don't need to worry about looking silly in front of their peers.

Exactly. Much of the intellectual work is, in fact, intellectual labor. It’s mostly about combining various information in one place — the exact task that LLM far outperforms human. People traditionally misclassified this class of work as “creative”. It’s not really.

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#203

Post by [deleted] »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #56
brianjking wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPT 5.5 Pro is not available to any plan outside of ChatGPT Pro ($100 or $200) tier or the API as far as consumer access.

Yes, but don't we expect GPT 5.5 Pro will eventually be a free tier? Maybe I'm missing something because I only use the free tier. But the free tier has gotten way better over the last few years. I'm pretty sure, based on descriptions on this site from paid subscribers, that the free tier now is better than the paid tier of say 2 years ago. That's the lag I'm wondering about.

[deleted]

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#204

Post by gardenhedge »

esjeon wrote: post #202
shybear wrote: post #139

It seems like alot of scientific advancements occurred by someone applying technique X from one field to problem Y in another. I feel like LLMs are much better at making these types of connections than humans because they 1) know about many more theories/approaches than a single human can 2) don't need to worry about looking silly in front of their peers.

Exactly. Much of the intellectual work is, in fact, intellectual labor . It’s mostly about combining various information in one place — the exact task that LLM far outperforms human. People traditionally misclassified this class of work as “creative”. It’s not really.

Isn't that science too?

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#205

Post by DonHopkins »

vjerancrnjak wrote: post #154
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine took 20min. Pro. https://chatgpt.com/share/69ed83b1-3704-8322-bcf2-322aa85d7a... But I wish I was math smart to know if it worked or not.

Ask it to formalize it in Lean.

Formalize this in the form of a Iranian Lego Trump Dis Rap video.

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#206

Post by [deleted] »

avaer wrote: post #49
schneems wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are bad at math. But they are good at writing code and as an optimization some providers have it secretly write code to answer the problem, run it and give you the answer without telling you what it did in the middle part.

Someone should tell the mathematicians if they use a calculator or a whiteboard or heavens forbid a computer they are "bad at math".

[deleted]

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#207

Post by locknitpicker »

esjeon wrote: post #202
shybear wrote: post #139

It seems like alot of scientific advancements occurred by someone applying technique X from one field to problem Y in another. I feel like LLMs are much better at making these types of connections than humans because they 1) know about many more theories/approaches than a single human can 2) don't need to worry about looking silly in front of their peers.

Exactly. Much of the intellectual work is, in fact, intellectual labor . It’s mostly about combining various information in one place — the exact task that LLM far outperforms human. People traditionally misclassified this class of work as “creative”. It’s not really.

> Much of the intellectual work is, in fact, intellectual labor.

That's a great point. It's in line with research being carried on the backs of graduate students, whose work is to hyperfocus on areas.

Re: Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem

#208

Post by dorgo »

esjeon wrote: post #202
shybear wrote: post #139

It seems like alot of scientific advancements occurred by someone applying technique X from one field to problem Y in another. I feel like LLMs are much better at making these types of connections than humans because they 1) know about many more theories/approaches than a single human can 2) don't need to worry about looking silly in front of their peers.

Exactly. Much of the intellectual work is, in fact, intellectual labor . It’s mostly about combining various information in one place — the exact task that LLM far outperforms human. People traditionally misclassified this class of work as “creative”. It’s not really.

Maybe all intellectual work is intellectual labor?
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