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missyougowersyesterday at 10:21 PM4 repliesview on HN

Unfortunately Gowers has taken Tao's lead on this one.

Gowers has one of my favourite video series about how he approaches a problem he is unfamiliar with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byjhpzEoXFs

It is disheartening to see him jump into this GenAI puffery.

I hope these GenAI labs are paying Tao handsomely for legitimizing their slop, but more likely he's feeling pressure from his University to promote and work with these labs.

My guess is Gowers wants in on that action, or his University does.

Either way, it makes me sad. If its self motivated... even sadder.


Replies

horhayyesterday at 11:46 PM

I'm not sure your characterization of Tao is accurate lol. In that companion paper, only Gowers seems to extensively show no pragmatism in the implications of this accomplishment. Even the younger math experts in that paper were a lot more cautious with their statements. Tao seems to follow that same tune most of the time even though he uses AI for first-pass inspections of solutions brought to his attention.

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cm2012today at 12:06 AM

If seems like you have an axe to grind about AI capabilities that is making you think irrationally

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Lost-Futurestoday at 12:29 AM

Ngl, this sounds like a defensive coping mechanism

aromanyesterday at 11:20 PM

Are you saying this result is uninteresting and therefore AI slop or puffery? Obviously OpenAI has a motivation to "market" the accomplishment as much as possible, but surely you agree it IS a remarkable achievement?

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