If it's worth anything: I have a PhD in (theoretical) mathematics and I entirely stand by stabbles' comment.

There is a real, undeniable possibility of AI becoming better at mathematics in the same way that it became better at chess and Go, and in such a scenario, one may expect the community's response to be comparable.

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robotpepi 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It makes no sense to compare mathematics with chess. Chess is a sport. No one is interested in watching two machines compete. Chess doesn't have a practical impact. Etc. What you seem to suggest is that AI will be able to completely (or at least in a great part) replace mathematicians. It could be the case in the future, but no one knows right now, and more importantly: tech companies don't even think about it! they don't think on the externalities.

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flatline 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Does mathematics still have a practical impact without humans in the loop? I don't think there's one single answer to that question, but I think it's worth considering exactly what that impact may be.

Tech companies are as much the topic of this post as AI, I think that's the immediacy.

	▲	jeremyjh an hour ago \| parent [-]
		To a significant extent, the pursuit of mathematics research is a pursuit of human understanding of mathematics, without knowing where it might lead, or whether it might lead anywhere at all. I don't see how the motivation for that goes away on its own, but the institution supporting it is certainly threatened by the potential loss of grant money and graduate student applications.

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phoghed 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> No one is interested in watching two machines compete

I’ve watched quite a lot of YouTube videos where two machines compete, so you may not be completely right here

	▲	sebastiansm7 20 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		https://tcec-chess.com/ Top chess engine championship is pretty fun to watch.

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3ash14 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Stockfish isn't owned by a club of three trillionaires. It does not cost $15 million to achieve a result in Stockfish.

Stockfish does not steal research or scoop researchers.

The concentration of computing resources and capital should be examined by the math community.

	▲	coderenegade an hour ago \| parent [-]
		This is the real problem. We're looking at a future where those who control AI have an insurmountable advantage in everything. They can control the amount of intelligence the masses have access to -- for their own safety, of course -- and they will never, ever be able to close the gap.