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Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

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Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#751

Post by totetsu »

sothatsit wrote: post #535

People argue whether we are at y-5, y, or y+5, meanwhile we seem to be on a y=2^x exponential that keeps delivering more and more impressive results. The most interesting question to me is what will be consumed by the exponential like math seems to be undergoing, and what won’t. Writing has been quite stubborn, but I’ve noticed Fable to be quite a big step up there. How about politics? Will we develop new ways to let…

I think you’re making a category error in your definition of politics here. Certainly technologies can favour winners and losers, but the struggle is an inherently human one.

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#752

Post by qarl2 »

plaidfuji wrote: post #674

Any computable problem will eventually fall to computers. LLMs have made math proofs more computable, in the sense that a computer can both generate potential solutions and check the validity of its solutions on its own, with a reasonable chance of converging on something correct. I assume this was already doable to some extent, but it seems like it’s now exponentially easier. That still doesn’t mean that all math is…

They don't need to make NP-hard tractable to shake the world order.

They just need to be better than humans.

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#753

Post by swedishagentic »

plif wrote: post #698
tyre wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will get much better at manipulation and better at people “writing” things to justify their own feelings. What’s new about LLMs is that you can scalably manipulate people individually. It used to be that you could either have scale (speeches, tweets, interviews, website, etc.) or individual engagement (replying to mail/tweets/town hall questions.) Now you can pull the history and preferences of an individual, then…

Not new about LLMs. Targeted ads / big data is this. Another degree of capability, yes. But we have been trending here for a long time.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Cambridge Analytica.

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#754

Post by qingcharles »

curt15 wrote: post #688
sothatsit wrote: post #535

People argue whether we are at y-5, y, or y+5, meanwhile we seem to be on a y=2^x exponential that keeps delivering more and more impressive results. The most interesting question to me is what will be consumed by the exponential like math seems to be undergoing, and what won’t. Writing has been quite stubborn, but I’ve noticed Fable to be quite a big step up there. How about politics? Will we develop new ways to let…

Another interesting question is why the frontier labs are piling on pure maths, which has little direct economic value compared to something like law or improving the efficiency of their own models? How much OpenAI and Anthropic are paying to serve these models for ordinary users is the elephant in the room. A cynical take is that the frontier labs are trying their best to pump up their pre-IPO valuation through flas…

What's the best way to apply it to legal problems? Finding bugs in statutes? (there are often statutes with wording errors, missing negatives, things like that which don't get picked up for ages)

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#756

Post by john_strinlai »

written-beyond wrote: post #755

Interesting how HN promoted this post to the front page again with a fake submission time. There are comments two days old, seems weird why they'd want this post specifically to get more traffic.

not very interesting, its the second chance pool. its not a conspiracy of ycombinator vs. openai.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#757

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

annzabelle wrote: post #692
throwaway27448 wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the sigmoid is incorrect it's certainly more correct than the exponential. > https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-sigmoids-wont-save-you The conclusion of this article seems to be "you should give ai the benefit of the doubt against all reason". Barf

The author of that post is a prominent Bay Area "rationalist," who have had a quasi-theistic relationship with the concept of all-powerful AIs for a couple decades now.

So are they right or wrong about the sigmoids?

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#758

Post by HDBaseT »

QwenGlazer9000 wrote: post #613
Marha01 wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> remember that gpt 4o was popular among those who had ai as a romantic partner I suspect GPT 5.6 would be even better at it, if given the same sycophantic system prompt and lack of guardrails.

Dude it's not a system prompt, it's the training.

The API lets you adjust the temperature. Lower values introduce more deterministic outputs, which likely helps with the hallucination rates.

If you want creative writings, use the API and play with the sliders.

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#759

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

zahlman wrote: post #587
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear you've been impacted by this AI math. I heard that Gary Kasparov was impacted by AI chess, but at least he still seems to have a job, so don't give up.

Making insulting assumptions about the hidden motivations of others is not the level of discourse I come to HN for.

FWIW I was responding to the sarcastically expressed overt message that AI-math is a clear sign that AGI is here and anyone who disagrees is in denial.

My point being that AI math is a narrow skill just like AI chess and implies nothing about generality (AGI).

Sarcasm begats sarcasm.

Re: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

#760

Post by QwenGlazer9000 »

oblio wrote: post #705
10dpd wrote: post #669

While these advances are genuinely impressive, I'm curious when we will see practical implications for this work. For example, will we see advances in material science, medical cures, etc? Would love to read about some examples of practical impact.

The big example predates LLMs as a unified tech and it's protein folding, from Google DeepMind. OpenAI and Anthropic are too greedy for cash to do anything of the sort. I don't expect this current economic cycle to bring anything else that will directly greatly improve the life of the average person on the planet, more than it hurts it.

And that's the crux. LLMs are the nuclear bomb, while AI is the fission. People refuse to stop building them even if they make things worse.
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