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GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

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Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#11

Post by slifin »

jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

I think there's a lot of interesting things to the side of development that don't get the resources they deserve

Debuggers, testing techniques, testing layers

Essentially things that could be used to ground your ai back to reality and work good for humans too

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#12

Post by redsocksfan45 »

jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

[dead]

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#13

Post by peddling-brink »

WA wrote: post #6
qsera wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the post lol >So I wouldn't really say that this result is using or creating some fundamentally new techniques in convex geometry or optimization theory. What this means from my perspective is that if a result is attainable with existing techniques, modern AI methods will be able to solve those problems. I don't think researchers in math/TCS will be made obsolete, but I think it will instead no longer make sense…

If knowledge is a Swiss cheese, LLMs can help fill the holes, but not make the cheese bigger.

Today maybe. I disagree in the long term.

While they’ll never have the same subjective experience as humans, what stops an LLM from applying similar lines of thought* in a manner that results in a novel conjecture?

They are prediction machines, and so are we in a way. We can give them nearly limitless resources to scale their predictive capabilities. We have billions of years of training baked in. They distill directly from our knowledge and can walk down paths that no human has before.

It’s silly to say they’ll never do anything novel.

At their current capabilities, it sounds like they are already capable of being a specific type is research assistant. What will that look like in 10-20 years?

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#15

Post by semiquaver »

jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

You’re at least 18 months out of date claiming that prompting will be the new hot skill. Turns out LLMs are also good at prompting other LLMs.

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#16

Post by aprilthird2021 »

jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

> I'm starting to feel like there's no place left for programmers like me who focus on quickly churning out MVPs.

Of course there is. The same way this was only possible as a result from the professor who prompted it with his specialized 10 page prompt and most importantly his deep knowledge of the problem space, the muscle memory and intuition you've built over the years is what will allow you to get more out of any AI than some guy who says "make a door dash clone" as the entire prompt

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#17

Post by aprilthird2021 »

semiquaver wrote: post #15
jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

You’re at least 18 months out of date claiming that prompting will be the new hot skill. Turns out LLMs are also good at prompting other LLMs.

And yet in this case a human prompted the LLM for this result, not another LLM

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#18

Post by brookst »

semiquaver wrote: post #15
jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

You’re at least 18 months out of date claiming that prompting will be the new hot skill. Turns out LLMs are also good at prompting other LLMs.

Ah, but who prompts the prompters?

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#19

Post by cromka »

semiquaver wrote: post #15
jdw64 wrote: post #7

What I'm feeling is that there's a need to study how to use AI well. I've seen professors using AI, and it was amazing. In that sense, I think AI prompt input will become stratified. In the past, implementation skills were very important, but these days, concepts feel more important this is one of those things. It's not that AI brings equality, but rather that the output varies depending on how much background knowle…

You’re at least 18 months out of date claiming that prompting will be the new hot skill. Turns out LLMs are also good at prompting other LLMs.

That doesn't make any sense; you can't have one LLM to read your mind to prompt another LLM.

Re: GPT-5.6 used a prompt to close a 30-year gap in convex optimization

#20

Post by throwthrowuknow »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #10

Two points: - Hasn't been peer reviewed yet, so take with a grain of salt. This applies to all claimed proofs, not just AI-generated ones. Even humans hallucinate proofs too! - The prompt is on page 27 here[1]. It is ten pages of advanced mathematics priming the model in the right direction, apparently informed by a year of prior research. That doesn't invalidate the result if it is genuine, but it is worth noting th…

Saying “solve this problem” doesn’t get good results most of the time with humans either, it’s entirely underspecified so the person assigned that problem may solve it in a variety of unacceptable ways or not at all or perhaps worse solve the wrong problem because you weren’t clear about its definition. This actually happens all the time. What matters is the ability to communicate clearly and with precision as well as the “harness” which for humans is procedure, training, planning and management.
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