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Comment by mhermher | Hacker News Reader

Will a computer ever write War and Peace or compose the 9th Symphony too? How about solve an unsolved math proof? No reason it can't be automated, right?

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> solve an unsolved math proof

Yes actually, although there are some philosophical objections to computer assisted proofs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem#Proof_by_co...

That's just grunt work that still had to be stitched together by a human.

But it was previously unsolved, which is your exact objection to the other example I gave.

Amongst the other 22 million results Google gave me for “ai beethoven” was this about one of their doodles: https://interestingengineering.com/the-first-ai-powered-goog...

While “ai mathematical proof” gave me “Google AI system proves over 1200 mathematical theorems”: https://mathscholar.org/2019/04/google-ai-system-proves-over...

So… yes, that’s fine?

None of those 1200 were previously unsolved, btw, as I mentioned above.

All these things are literally on the AI horizon.

Indeed, it's that lake we can see and certainly reach if only we can make it just a little farther into the AI desert.

No matter how fast you run for the horizon, it stays well out of reach.

I'd say these things are also 'way in the future'.

People were saying this in the seventies before the long AI winter.

It's always just around the corner, and has been since the dawn of AI. Maybe we will get there some day (I never say never), but cautious realism has never been the AI field's strong suit.

And how long exactly is that horizon?

There's an emotional component to art, and I don't see nearly as much work on artificial emotions as I do on task-oriented artificial intelligence.

A lot of people are working to create a car smart enough to drive humans anywhere. How many people are working to create a car smart enough to refuse to drive because it's feeling inspired to write music instead?

Faking emotions is much easier than faking rational thought. People interpret any behavior as emotion-based, even with obviously non-sentient objects.

Old Soviet joke:

Radio Yerevan was asked: We are told that communism is already seen at the horizon. Then, what is a horizon?

Answer: A horizon is an imaginary line which moves away each time you approach it.

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