‘Breathtaking’, ‘devastating’: Mathematics reels after new OpenAI release
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Experts say the cataclysmic upheaval to the field will most affect graduate students on the cusp of becoming a part of this intellectual community.
PHOTO: IAN BATES/NYTIMES
Siobhan Roberts
- OpenAI released more than 350 AI-generated maths findings on Oct 6, including a proof of the "quasi-Riemann hypothesis" that stunned leading mathematicians.
- The results do not solve any Millennium Prize Problem, but they advance many fields and may help future breakthroughs, while some papers were later corrected or withdrawn.
- Mathematicians are split between excitement and alarm, as AI may speed discovery but also threaten peer review, research culture and the value of graduate study.
AI generated
NEW YORK – “If a human did this, it would be an instant Fields Medal, no questions asked.”
That was how Alex Kontorovich, chair of the department of mathematics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, responded to an AI-generated proof that OpenAI, the artificial intelligence giant, released on Oct 6.