Ask HN: Why is problem solving in math still important in the AI age?

3 points·amichail··4 comments

AI will soon be better than almost all human mathematicians at math problem solving.

So maybe it's time for math teachers and students to stop worrying about developing strong math problem solving skills (e.g., via math contests, etc.)?

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> AI will soon be better than almost all human mathematicians at math problem solving.

You misunderstand what mathematicians do. My favorite example is this: Birds can fly, but can they use their intuition to create a theory of flight, and then use that to build a plane ? This book by Bessis paints this really well [1].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mathematica-Secret-World-Intuition-Cu...

Mathematician here: if we relied on AI to solve mathematics then it would be analogous to painters giving up when photography arrived. Art is not about depicting a scene, it is about transferring emotions and meanings visually; mathematics is not about solving problems, but forming curiosities forming intuitions about the patterns that underlie our reality.

> but forming curiosities forming intuitions about the patterns that underlie our reality.

beautifully articulated, thanks @qubex

a) You still need to have some good level of mental and manual habilites. My hand can multiply polynomials without my help. Yes, it's my brain, but there is a lot of low level stuff that is almost automatic. Some of it can be transferred to the computer (in particular, polynomial multiplication) but you still need some general understanding about degree, factorization, symmetries and coefficient structure.

b) It's fun. You can try to go and tell Magnus to stop playing chess, resistance is futile.

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