An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems • Hacker News Board

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#31

Post by akmarinov » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 1:51 PM UTC

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #2

I feel like this kind of "result dump" just cheapens mathematics. How about having a little respect for those whose work this builds on, and current mathematicians some of who may have spent years working on these problems. Rather than sitting on these results until they had enough for a "shock and awe" 10-result dump, how about releasing these results individually as they were made/verified, as well as the failures…

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

Same thing on coding - business doesn’t care one bit about your clean architecture or clever design, so long as the AI can change the implementation fast enough to ship whatever product comes up with.

People are having a rough time figuring out that good design and fundamentals no longer align with the business side of things.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#32

Post by fidotron » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

firesteelrain wrote: post #6

I believe this is what we wanted computers to help us solve along with other prior hard problems prior to computers. This should be viewed as a good thing even if Anthropic, OpenAI, etc benefit just like IBM benefitted from mainframes.

Indeed. I specifically recall my logic lecturers in a compsci course expressing the view the one purpose of computers is to work towards enabling automatic proofs, partly because they saw this as the universal problem in compsci (esp compilers) as well as massive potential for scientific progress generally.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#33

Post by zer00eyz » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

false-mirror wrote: post #7

shshshsbe wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it’s tough, but I am not a fan of elitism. Mathematics is no different from all other branches which themselves are just intellectual labor which is again just a special type of labor. There is nothing magical about it and if computers can trivialize it, so be it. Where were all the mathematicians and academics in general when “regular joe” was automated? Now it’s hitting close to home and their foreheads are…

I'd prefer the reverse approach. Let's value the "regular Joe" instead of cheapening everyone.

This is what the Ludites were trying to accomplish with an (armed) uprising.

Go back 100 years and 15 percent of the population was "Farmer", and 30 percent were in some sort of "domestic" work.

Most modern jobs are a product of the fact that technology continues to advance. And by all measures it does not look like "ai" is going to change that.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#34

Post by dahart » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #2

I feel like this kind of "result dump" just cheapens mathematics. How about having a little respect for those whose work this builds on, and current mathematicians some of who may have spent years working on these problems. Rather than sitting on these results until they had enough for a "shock and awe" 10-result dump, how about releasing these results individually as they were made/verified, as well as the failures…

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

> your understanding is not required

Whoa, how quickly have we forgotten how the AI is trained?

> You get a fancy house […] society to labor just to support your class and its lifestyle.

Wait, how much money do you think math teachers make? Do you know how much money AI engineers make in comparison? Why the animus and insecurity toward education? You are making math teachers sound far more rich and powerful than they actually are.

> Understanding never was the goal

Hard disagree

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#35

Post by bbg2401 » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #2

I feel like this kind of "result dump" just cheapens mathematics. How about having a little respect for those whose work this builds on, and current mathematicians some of who may have spent years working on these problems. Rather than sitting on these results until they had enough for a "shock and awe" 10-result dump, how about releasing these results individually as they were made/verified, as well as the failures…

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

Even beyond the malady of feeling liberated by others struggling, all you’ve done is express poisonous anti-intellectualism.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#36

Post by somenameforme » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

robotpepi wrote: post #24

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

what are even "results" in mathematics if not understanding? for instance, what's the utility of the counterexamples built by openAI? It seems you're fighting an hallucinated enemy.

One would think something like the study of the square root of negative 1 would have little utility beyond a hand-wavy appeal to understanding, but it turns out to have major practical applications ranging from electrical engineering to 3d rotations.

I tend to believe we're still likely at a very primitive level of technology. It's difficult to imagine this primarily because of unknown unknowns. For instance at the end of the 19th century it was believed that science had basically been finished, and all that remained was working things out to ever higher levels of precision to wrap up a few curiosities.

Then along come relativity, quantum mechanics, and more - all completely revolutionizing science, and upending centuries of false beliefs. I think we're far more likely to be at the end of the 19th century again, rather than at the end of science, or anywhere near such. And if that's the case, then it may well be that seemingly academic discoveries of today, perhaps ultimately achieved by an LLM, are what help unlock the next great revolution.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#37

Post by tentahedronic » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

aureate wrote: post #28

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

I shouldn't be surprised how prevalent this viewpoint is, given the entrenched anti-intellectualism these days in the US and across the world, but it's disturbing to see it so widespread on HN of all places. You are of course free to wield this new technology any way you choose (to the extent its owners and your wallet allow you to, for now at least), and if you can enrich yourself by doing so power to you. I won't a…

Once you have experienced first hand the level of disdain the so called intellectuels have towards the regular joe it is hard to feel any sympathy for them. If I can be replaced with cheap foreign labour you too should just deal with it. You are not entitled to your well paying oil drilling job, you know, you should just move on and take another job or two and some nightly backbreaking gigs here and there if math doesn't feed your family any more. Surely you don't want to be lazier than immigrants and can adjust to their frugal standards of living...

Exceptional mathematicians are not going to be jobless, just like master level craftsmen still do kinda well. Tough luck if your abilities are subpar to achieve excellence though, that is just the rat race to the bottom we have created and finally the so called intellectuels are also getting to fully taste it themselves. Realizing you were never that special and your job can be either fully automated away or reduced to a wage that barely pays the bills is a hard pill to swallow. But progress is inevitable as they have been saying.

I will keep studying math purely for fun.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#38

Post by tentahedronic » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC

bbg2401 wrote: post #35

znjssjnsns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is so incredibly liberating to see the intellectual elite struggling with was already reality for 99% of the rest of us: your understanding is not required, it might in fact be detrimental as it amounts to a handbrake on progress. Understanding never was the goal, results were. We will be getting boatloads of those. What does your understanding get us? You get a fancy house out of it and you might be intellectuall…

Even beyond the malady of feeling liberated by others struggling, all you’ve done is express poisonous anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism is not worse than being against the actual working class (those stupid rednecks who don't even know what is best for them).

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#39

Post by aureate » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

tentahedronic wrote: post #37

aureate wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shouldn't be surprised how prevalent this viewpoint is, given the entrenched anti-intellectualism these days in the US and across the world, but it's disturbing to see it so widespread on HN of all places. You are of course free to wield this new technology any way you choose (to the extent its owners and your wallet allow you to, for now at least), and if you can enrich yourself by doing so power to you. I won't a…

Once you have experienced first hand the level of disdain the so called intellectuels have towards the regular joe it is hard to feel any sympathy for them. If I can be replaced with cheap foreign labour you too should just deal with it. You are not entitled to your well paying oil drilling job, you know, you should just move on and take another job or two and some nightly backbreaking gigs here and there if math doe…

I struggle to identify with the apparent glee you feel at berating the person you imagine yourself talking to. I guess we all have our own idiosyncratic forms of fantasy, but this one doesn't seem very healthy.

Re: An internal OpenAI Astra model solved 10 major open math and CS problems

#40

Post by dahart » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

tentahedronic wrote: post #38

bbg2401 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even beyond the malady of feeling liberated by others struggling, all you’ve done is express poisonous anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism is not worse than being against the actual working class (those stupid rednecks who don't even know what is best for them).

That’s pure straw man. There isn’t anyone against the working class in this thread, and there is anti-intellectualism in this thread. I don’t doubt there are some academics who are jerks, but you’re incorrectly assuming something about all academics (not to mention all working class) that simply isn’t true.