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A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

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Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#11

Post by NotOscarWilde »

As a TCS assistant professor from Eastern Europe, I always am a little jealous of the biggest names in math having such an easy access to the expensive, long thinking models.

Paying for Pro from any of my current academic budgets is completely ouf of the field of reality here -- all budgets tend to have restricted uses and software payments fit into very few categories. Effectively, I'd have to ask for a brand new grant and hope the grant rules allow for large software payments and I won't encounter an anti-AI reviewer; such a thing would take one year at least.

As a nail to the coffin, I was "denied" all Claude Opus recently as part of Microsoft's clampdown on individual (and academic) use of Copilot.

(Chagpt 5.5 Plus does not seem sufficient for any deeper investigations into new research topics, I've tried.)

Apologies for the rant.

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#12

Post by MinimalAction »

As a graduate student, this piece made me sad. I always believed that my work speaks for itself and transcends beyond my limited time on this cosmic experience. This notion of immortality was just a small intangible bonus I hoped for when I jumped into grad school. AI is making me feel less worthy.

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#13

Post by NitpickLawyer »

iTokio wrote: post #4

On complex problems with lengthy proofs, the first step that I would have done is to ask 5.5 pro in a new, unrelated, session, to be very critical, to try to find flaws in the arguments. And certainly not to send it to a fellow colleague to ask its opinion first. LLMs are certainly becoming capable to code, find vulnerabilities, solve mathematical problems, but we need to avoid putting their works in production, or i…

> but we need to avoid putting their works in production, or in front of other humans, without assessing it by any possible mean.

I think this is good advice in general, maybe with an emphasis on public vs. private, friendly contact. Having 0 thought AI slop thrown at you out of the blue is rude. "could have been a prompt" indeed. But having a friend/colleague ask for a quick glance at something they know you handle well is another story for me.

If I've worked on a subject for a few years, and know the particulars in and out, I'd have no trouble skimming something that a friend or a colleague sent me. I am sparing those 5-10 minutes for the friend, not for what they sent. And for an expert in a particular domain, often 5 minutes is all it takes for a "lgtm" or "lol no".

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#14

Post by dyauspitr »

NotOscarWilde wrote: post #11

As a TCS assistant professor from Eastern Europe, I always am a little jealous of the biggest names in math having such an easy access to the expensive, long thinking models. Paying for Pro from any of my current academic budgets is completely ouf of the field of reality here -- all budgets tend to have restricted uses and software payments fit into very few categories. Effectively, I'd have to ask for a brand new gr…

[flagged]

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#16

Post by whatever120 »

MinimalAction wrote: post #12

As a graduate student, this piece made me sad. I always believed that my work speaks for itself and transcends beyond my limited time on this cosmic experience. This notion of immortality was just a small intangible bonus I hoped for when I jumped into grad school. AI is making me feel less worthy.

You are worthy. You will hone your skills in grad school and be able to command these AIs better than somebody who hasn’t struggled with hard problems for a long time.

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#17

Post by bananaflag »

dyauspitr wrote: post #14
NotOscarWilde wrote: post #11

As a TCS assistant professor from Eastern Europe, I always am a little jealous of the biggest names in math having such an easy access to the expensive, long thinking models. Paying for Pro from any of my current academic budgets is completely ouf of the field of reality here -- all budgets tend to have restricted uses and software payments fit into very few categories. Effectively, I'd have to ask for a brand new gr…

[flagged]

For a TCS assistant professor in Eastern Europe, $200/month would be 20% of their salary.

And the situation is better, ten years ago it would have been 80%.

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#18

Post by whatever120 »

margalabargala wrote: post #5
CharlesLau wrote: post #3

Is the assessment system of undergraduate mathematics education no longer effective?

Undergraduate? No. We've had calculators able to solve undergraduate problems for decades. AI doesn't change the need to understand how calculus works any more than calculators did. The foundations remain valuable. Graduate? Yes.

How should graduate school be changed then? Specifically for mathematics

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#19

Post by dyauspitr »

CharlesLau wrote: post #3

Is the assessment system of undergraduate mathematics education no longer effective?

I don’t think it’s just mathematics. We don’t hear enough about this, but if I think back to my undergraduate years, which were less than 10 years ago, every homework assignment and every take-home exam I had would be trivial for LLMs to solve at this point I wonder what is actually happening on the ground.

Re: A recent experience with ChatGPT 5.5 Pro

#20

Post by xanrah »

dyauspitr wrote: post #14
NotOscarWilde wrote: post #11

As a TCS assistant professor from Eastern Europe, I always am a little jealous of the biggest names in math having such an easy access to the expensive, long thinking models. Paying for Pro from any of my current academic budgets is completely ouf of the field of reality here -- all budgets tend to have restricted uses and software payments fit into very few categories. Effectively, I'd have to ask for a brand new gr…

[flagged]

Lots of people in the west can’t afford 200 a month. How rich are you?
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