Why mathematics is set to be revolutionized by AI (www.nature.com)
from boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 06:01
https://lemmy.world/post/15454958

#technology

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JoMomma@lemm.ee on 16 May 2024 06:07 next collapse

No

QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 06:19 next collapse

Are you saying “No… let’s not advance mathematics”? Or… “No, let’s not advance mathematics using AI”?

Sturgist@lemmy.ca on 16 May 2024 06:41 next collapse

Yes

sirico@feddit.uk on 16 May 2024 06:42 next collapse

I was saying boourns

JoMomma@lemm.ee on 16 May 2024 17:44 collapse

No

Lemminary@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 06:41 collapse

Ok

windie@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 06:13 next collapse

This might be a worthy application.

amzd@kbin.social on 16 May 2024 07:48 next collapse

AI is insanely bad at distinguishing fact from hallucination, which seems like a terrible match for math

blargerer@kbin.social on 16 May 2024 08:38 next collapse

I haven't read this article, but the one place machine learning is really really good, is narrowing down a really big solution space where false negatives and false positives are cheap. Frankly, I'm not sure how you'd go about training an AI to solve math problems, but if you could figure that out, it sounds roughly like it would fit the bill. You just need human verification as the final step, with the understanding that humans will rule out like 90% of the tries, but if you only need one success that's fine. As a real world example machine learning is routinely used in astronomy to narrow down candidate stars or galaxies from potentially millions of options to like 200 that can then undergo human review.

magic_lobster_party@kbin.run on 16 May 2024 11:04 next collapse

The article is about using computers to discover new conjectures (mathematical statements that are not yet known to be true or false). The conjecture can be then later be formally proven (or disproven) by humans.

Sounds like a good match for me. Formulating conjectures is about finding an interesting pattern and argue that this pattern holds true. Computers are getting increasingly better at pattern matching, so why not use them?

Title is a bit clickbaity by calling it AI.

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 May 2024 15:16 collapse

Title is a bit clickbaity by calling it AI.

That’s literally every article about “AI”.

… the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, of which I am director

There’s the reason. Self-promotion.

Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 May 2024 15:10 collapse

AI isn’t just LLMs.

dragontamer@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 15:24 collapse

No one is talking about automated theorem provers (see 4 coloring theorem) or symbolic solvers (see Mathematica). These tools already revolutionized math decades ago.

The only thing that came out in the past year or two are LLMs. Which is clearly overhyped bullshit.

Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 May 2024 15:29 collapse

The article doesn’t mention LLMs, and many ML related things came out in the last year or two that aren’t LLMs.

anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 May 2024 08:21 next collapse

The absence of coincidence

Look up the strong law of small numbers.

Also, one of their examples of AI was an exhaustive search.

EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee on 16 May 2024 08:38 next collapse

Set to be revolutionized by AI because AI can’t do math.

Says my brother, a Math Professor that works with people trying to develop AI

misk@sopuli.xyz on 16 May 2024 11:12 collapse

AI is math, statistics specifically.

[deleted] on 16 May 2024 15:27 next collapse

.

yildolw@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 23:35 collapse

AI can’t count the number of letters in a word

misk@sopuli.xyz on 17 May 2024 06:02 collapse

That’s because ChatGPT and the likes use machine learning to calculate odds of word combinations that make up a plausible sentence in a given context. There are scientific studies that postulate we’ll never have enough data to train those models properly, not to mention exponential energy consumption required. But this is not the only application of this technology.

Audalin@lemmy.world on 16 May 2024 08:48 collapse

The article isn’t about automatic proofs, but it’d be interesting to see a LLM that can write formal proofs in Coq/Lean/whatever and call external computer algebra systems like SageMath or Mathematica.

CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz on 16 May 2024 21:06 collapse

I was thinking something similar: If you have the computer write in a formal language, designed in such a way that it is impossible to make an incorrect statement, I guess it could be possible to get somewhere with this