> we ask them to stop testing advanced mathematical problems on proprietary models.
Maybe I'm alone on this, but for some reason these sorts of requests strike me as akin to gatekeeping how someone should breathe air. It's math... the numbers and symbols are just out there in the platonic realm available for anyone to do as they like with them. It's patently absurd to request other people to stop.
Ensuring credit where credit is due? That's fine. If your model incorporates the efforts of many others, then it's reasonable to request acknowledgement of everyone who contributed (even indirectly). But that's not what the request states — presumably their ask subsumes any advanced ML model, including those that weren't trained on a giant corpus of text.
I don't see why mathematicians should be protected from AI anymore than any other profession. It's either everybody or nobody, not fair on the face of it otherwise.
TFA isn't asking for mathematicians to be protected from AI. It's asking AI labs to hold themselves to the standards of the mathematical community:
- releasing papers using the normal process to allow peer review
- giving talks etc to disseminate knowledge so humans understand the result
- writing papers in a way (standard terminology etc) that allows mathematicians to digest the result (some AI math papers comprise a huge verbose load of non-standard terminology and waffle and then a massive lean proof. This is very hard for humans to actually understand, and means it's hard for others to take the work forward.)
- giving appropriate credit to results that are used to derive the work
It includes some specific recommendations for situations where the person prompting the model is not in a position to understand the output, and frankly these are really welcome given situations like the recent case at Anthropic where a non-mathematician at Anthropic prompted claude to make a significant improvement to the bounds of a problem related to the Riemann Zeta function[1] which led to widespread misreporting and claims (not by Anthropic themselves notably) that the Riemann hypothesis itself had been proved, which is emphatically not the case.
Research mathematics is fundamentally a collaborative activity and the way in which some of these results are released is done to maximise PR but means a ton of the mathematical value is left on the table.
[1] <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/research/riemann-zeta" rel="nofollow">https://www.anthropic.com/research/riemann-zeta. As I understand it, the Riemann Hypothesis says that all non-trivial zeroes of the zeta function lie on a line called the critical line. Two centuries of previous work had established that at least something like 40.9% of the zeroes lie on the line and noone has ever found a non-trivial zero that does not lie on that line. Claude (with prompting from a non-mathematician to "try harder" etc) improved this bound massively to 67%. Now a lot of people said things like "OK so all we've got to do is to improve that to 100% and we've proved the RH", which is definitely not true unfortunately, because you can say that in the limit the proportion of the zeroes on the line is 100% and still have infinitely many which are not.
we do not endorse this practice, and we ask them to stop testing advanced mathematical problems on proprietary models
From point 2 under section "1. Background":
AI labs should provide significant support, including funding, to help develop this understanding
Point 3 under the same section:
The development of human understanding must remain organic and community led. It should not be directed by AI labs, even when the labs have produced the results.
If, as you say, they are "asking AI labs to hold themselves to the standards of the mathematical community", I must conclude that the mathematical community
1. Ideally wants a monopoly on mathematics research.
2. Demands money from those who dare violate their ideal monopoly.
3. Insists that the ideal monopoly remain in charge.
Your monopoly theory lacks a credible motive and also ignores the fact that your quote specifically targets the frontier labs, not LLMs or computational tools in general. The group (<a href="https://agmai.org/" rel="nofollow">https://agmai.org/) comprises of world-renowned mathematicians, including several Fields medalists, who have nothing left to prove. If they felt like it they could quit mathematics today and take private sector jobs paying far more than their professor salaries.
The basic purpose of mathematics has always been human understanding (see for example
<a href="https://mathoverflow.net/a/44213" rel="nofollow">https://mathoverflow.net/a/44213), and the working group's various recommendations simply aim to ensure that computer-generated mathematical activity aligns with that purpose.
The motive is obvious and all over the comments. For you convenience, it can be summarized as gatekeeping. Start unpacking it and you will find ego (these are people at the top of a cloistered social pecking order who suddenly see that order threatened), entitlement (their writing reflects a belief that they own mathematics and have the right to dictate how it's done by others) and economics (academic funding follows prestige; being outdone by machines undermines the prestige, hence the funding).
> and also ignores the fact that your quote specifically targets the frontier labs, not LLMs or computational tools in general
That's like saying "your opposition to autonomous weapons ignores the fact that they specifically target [INSERT FAVORITE TARGET]". I ignore what's irrelevant.
If Ken Griffin had not chosen to donate $3 billion to CMU [1] and instead had spent that money on tokens to solve a bunch of open problems [2][3] using publicly available LLMs, do you seriously believe their reaction would have been more positive?
> The group (<a href="https://agmai.org/" rel="nofollow">https://agmai.org/) comprises of world-renowned mathematicians, including several Fields medalists,
I am well aware of who they are, thank you very much.
> who have nothing left to prove.
In the old order now under threat.
> If they felt like it they could quit mathematics today and take private sector jobs paying far more than their professor salaries.
A common delusion among students and maybe even some professors who've never set foot outside academia. The authors of TFA know better, of course. Their current conditions amount to enjoying a comfortable living while pursuing their favorite hobby full time. In the private sector they would have to justify their salary by (gasp) working on something (OMG!) applied with a reasonable prospect of (would you believe it?) meaningfully contributing to their employer's (pardon my French) bottom line. A revolting thought, and prospective employers know that too. Both parties know it wouldn't work.
> the working group's various recommendations simply aim to ensure that computer-generated mathematical activity aligns with that purpose
throwaway713 · · focus · HN ↗
Maybe I'm alone on this, but for some reason these sorts of requests strike me as akin to gatekeeping how someone should breathe air. It's math... the numbers and symbols are just out there in the platonic realm available for anyone to do as they like with them. It's patently absurd to request other people to stop.
Ensuring credit where credit is due? That's fine. If your model incorporates the efforts of many others, then it's reasonable to request acknowledgement of everyone who contributed (even indirectly). But that's not what the request states — presumably their ask subsumes any advanced ML model, including those that weren't trained on a giant corpus of text.
knuckleheads · · focus · HN ↗
seanhunter · · focus · HN ↗
- releasing papers using the normal process to allow peer review
- giving talks etc to disseminate knowledge so humans understand the result
- writing papers in a way (standard terminology etc) that allows mathematicians to digest the result (some AI math papers comprise a huge verbose load of non-standard terminology and waffle and then a massive lean proof. This is very hard for humans to actually understand, and means it's hard for others to take the work forward.)
- giving appropriate credit to results that are used to derive the work
It includes some specific recommendations for situations where the person prompting the model is not in a position to understand the output, and frankly these are really welcome given situations like the recent case at Anthropic where a non-mathematician at Anthropic prompted claude to make a significant improvement to the bounds of a problem related to the Riemann Zeta function[1] which led to widespread misreporting and claims (not by Anthropic themselves notably) that the Riemann hypothesis itself had been proved, which is emphatically not the case.
Research mathematics is fundamentally a collaborative activity and the way in which some of these results are released is done to maximise PR but means a ton of the mathematical value is left on the table.
[1] <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/research/riemann-zeta" rel="nofollow">https://www.anthropic.com/research/riemann-zeta. As I understand it, the Riemann Hypothesis says that all non-trivial zeroes of the zeta function lie on a line called the critical line. Two centuries of previous work had established that at least something like 40.9% of the zeroes lie on the line and noone has ever found a non-trivial zero that does not lie on that line. Claude (with prompting from a non-mathematician to "try harder" etc) improved this bound massively to 67%. Now a lot of people said things like "OK so all we've got to do is to improve that to 100% and we've proved the RH", which is definitely not true unfortunately, because you can say that in the limit the proportion of the zeroes on the line is 100% and still have infinitely many which are not.
T-A · · focus · HN ↗
we do not endorse this practice, and we ask them to stop testing advanced mathematical problems on proprietary models
From point 2 under section "1. Background":
AI labs should provide significant support, including funding, to help develop this understanding
Point 3 under the same section:
The development of human understanding must remain organic and community led. It should not be directed by AI labs, even when the labs have produced the results.
If, as you say, they are "asking AI labs to hold themselves to the standards of the mathematical community", I must conclude that the mathematical community
1. Ideally wants a monopoly on mathematics research.
2. Demands money from those who dare violate their ideal monopoly.
3. Insists that the ideal monopoly remain in charge.
curt15 · · focus · HN ↗
The basic purpose of mathematics has always been human understanding (see for example <a href="https://mathoverflow.net/a/44213" rel="nofollow">https://mathoverflow.net/a/44213), and the working group's various recommendations simply aim to ensure that computer-generated mathematical activity aligns with that purpose.
T-A · · focus · HN ↗
The motive is obvious and all over the comments. For you convenience, it can be summarized as gatekeeping. Start unpacking it and you will find ego (these are people at the top of a cloistered social pecking order who suddenly see that order threatened), entitlement (their writing reflects a belief that they own mathematics and have the right to dictate how it's done by others) and economics (academic funding follows prestige; being outdone by machines undermines the prestige, hence the funding).
> and also ignores the fact that your quote specifically targets the frontier labs, not LLMs or computational tools in general
That's like saying "your opposition to autonomous weapons ignores the fact that they specifically target [INSERT FAVORITE TARGET]". I ignore what's irrelevant.
If Ken Griffin had not chosen to donate $3 billion to CMU [1] and instead had spent that money on tokens to solve a bunch of open problems [2][3] using publicly available LLMs, do you seriously believe their reaction would have been more positive?
> The group (<a href="https://agmai.org/" rel="nofollow">https://agmai.org/) comprises of world-renowned mathematicians, including several Fields medalists,
I am well aware of who they are, thank you very much.
> who have nothing left to prove.
In the old order now under threat.
> If they felt like it they could quit mathematics today and take private sector jobs paying far more than their professor salaries.
A common delusion among students and maybe even some professors who've never set foot outside academia. The authors of TFA know better, of course. Their current conditions amount to enjoying a comfortable living while pursuing their favorite hobby full time. In the private sector they would have to justify their salary by (gasp) working on something (OMG!) applied with a reasonable prospect of (would you believe it?) meaningfully contributing to their employer's (pardon my French) bottom line. A revolting thought, and prospective employers know that too. Both parties know it wouldn't work.
> the working group's various recommendations simply aim to ensure that computer-generated mathematical activity aligns with that purpose
If so it completely misses the mark.
[1] <a href="https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/hedge-fund-ceo-ken-griffin-record-3b-carnegie-136881643" rel="nofollow">https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/hedge-fund-ceo-ken-gr...
[2] <a href="https://www.unsolvedmath.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.unsolvedmath.com/
[3] <a href="https://www.openproblemgarden.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.openproblemgarden.org/