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It's almost like saying human+calculator beats human.

Haven't mathematicians been using complex computer modeling to help solve unsolved math problems since computers have existed? And havent those computers basically always beat out a human alone?

So isn't this news just that the mathematicians now have a newer and better computer model to help them solve their problems?

Seems like evolution, not revolution.

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If I understand correctly, they're using an LLM to write a series of computer programs exploring a large solution space and feeding the output of those programs into a separate validation program written by a human. To take the calculator analogy, it's more like having the human give a set of constraints on a solution and having the calculator decide what buttons to push.

Real progress is always incremental. I wouldn't be surprised if 5-10 years from now we have similar kinds of systems discovering new materials or new candidates for dark matter.

This sounds like TDD but with the humans writing the test and the machine writing the code.

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