When it comes to AI (specifically LLMs) and mathematics, there are two worlds colliding. On one hand you have the AI-maximizers, who believe (and are betting on) LLMs being the harbinger of a new era of mathematical discovery. This school of thought goes so far as to not only pour $64M into a four-month-old startup, but also features a founder boldly asking the question “Maybe we discovered new math?” On the other hand – and when it comes to AI the world seems to divide itself into polarities – others counter with a simple “Basically zero, garbage.”
One of the world’s biggest mathematicians Joel David Hamkins has slammed AI models used for solving mathematics and called them basically zero and garbage, adding them he doesn’t find them useful at all. He also highlighted AI’s frustrating tendency to confidently assert incorrectness and resist correction. If I were having such an experience with a person, I would simply refuse to talk to that person again, Joel David Hamkins said.
Who’s right? Your guess is as good as mine.
