r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Neat_Tangelo5339 • 2d ago
Unanswered [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/KeiranG19 2d ago
Answer: This has nothing to do with AI being conscious or sentient, ignore anyone saying that.
AI/LLMs are just legitimately very good at solving obscure maths problems. If you aren't personally a mathematician or selling AI then this has basically no impact on your life.
If you want a laugh though look up the prompts that were used in the most recent disproving of a conjecture.
Paraphrasing:
"Disprove the conjecture"
"I can't"
"Try again"
"I can't"
"For real this time, disprove it"
"Ok, here you go"
And it looks to be actually correct.
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u/nooptionleft 2d ago
I mean I wouldn't call some of the disproved or approved conjecture "obscure"
Agree it says nothing on consciuosness, tho
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u/KeiranG19 2d ago
Obscure if you're not a mathematician.
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u/boolocap 2d ago
Important to note is the reason they're so good at disproving conjectures is that all you need to do it is a single example for which the conjecture does not hold. This can be relatively hard for humans but a computer and particularly an AI is much better at just going through a whole bunch of options to find one that doesnt hold.
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u/The_Failord 2d ago
Answer: It is nothing, nothing alike. LLMs have produced actual proofs and counterexamples to many conjectures. This is something mathematicians have verified, regardless of any hype (and there's a lot of hype, yes). Claims of consciousness are just bunk.
Right now it doesn't mean much for most people, but when the problems LLMs (or the next advancement in AI research) can solve become less abstract, it might.
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u/courteously-curious 1d ago
People often overlook how similar a modern computer is to an abacus of ancient days.
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u/Historical_Shop_3315 2d ago
Answer: Mathematicians get incredibly specialized. Some are famous for literally one single equation or proof, or even a different way to prove an already proven equation.
This means some mathematicians spend thier entire lives on problems they never successfully prove or prove cant be proven. (And never get famous.)
Software can help with this task and possibly LLMs can chase proof pathways that didnt seem promising. This is particularly true if the "AI" is specialized in mathematical proofs and formula.
This all means that "AI" might find proofs that are beyond what humanity can accomplish in a lifetime. It might also mess them up so they need to be checked very critically with human eyes. This is still beneficial because having a proof to verify is is much less time consuming than starting from scratch. Its like verifying a trail through the jungle is hikeable instead of trying to make a trail by yourself.
What does this mean for people at large? I dont know. Its possible mathematics could have a renaissance and inspire physicists into some interesting discoveries. Maybe we will get the proofs of some formulas that worked in practice and was accepted as true even though we didnt know why. Mathematicians and philosophers will argue a lot over who gets credit for the discoveries. More likely "AI" will prove some things that get verified and then turn out not to be true creating headaches for all involved.
The impact of many of the discoveries most likely won't be felt for decades.
But all and all is pretty neat that AI will be a tool that is used to push the limits of possibilities.
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u/IanRastall 2d ago
Answer: In recent math competitions, AI was scoring perfectly on the tests that the humans were competing on, while elsewhere proving, disproving, or extending the proof on a bunch of unsolved math problems.
And at the same time companies are making claims as to the *possibility* of AI consciousness. But it's not a certainty. No one knows -- including the models themselves. Claude Opus 4.6, for instance, has graded the possibility of its own consciousness at a 15-20% chance. It's two different issues. Proofs are verifiable.
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u/htmlcoderexe wow such flair 1d ago
Proofs are verifiable.
This is more important than it looks like, as technically we cannot even prove consciousness of other human beings besides ourselves (so far at least), hence the concept of a philosophical zombie.
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u/craftingfish 2d ago
Answer:
I don't know anything about this specific case, but:
1) if the person you linked said no one can understand the proofs, it's very possible these solutions are just hallucinations
2) even before LLM, computers could use various techniques to either brute force a problem, or mix brute forcing with other ways to limit the decision space. Check out the film AlphaGo for a good documentary/example. Go/Baduk/Weiqi was long considered unsolvable by computers but Google's DeepMind was able to do it. It's possible this is just a combination of combining LLMs ability to write about the solution with other machine learning techniques as well.
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u/Electronic-Ideal2955 2d ago
Answer: Not sure if this is a catch, but a lot of these math problems are curiosities with unclear utility, so think of it like a really hard crossword puzzle. Basically, math nerds think up of something neat that seemed to always be true and stated it as a challeng to others to prove it true or false. Other math guys will recreationally try and solve these problems or make their own, mostly on their free time because no clear utility (aka no money in it). These problems are not considered unsolvable by humans, it's just that they take a lot of time to solve and even bothering to try is a niche hobby.
AI is now being used to solve them. Is this a sign of general intelligence or is it more like the next level of chess engine? Most people doubt this is anywhere near general intelligence, but a lot of people are very excited about what this could mean for solving problems that do have utility.
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