Even if that happens, what’s the point if there’s no human involvement? AI doing math for math’s sake? And doing what with it?
What is Magnus Carlsen going to do when he can't beat the computer?
It seems like a category error between humans using tools and humans building tools.
There is not much point in trying to figure out a better chess engine. There has never been a better time though to want to learn chess.
I find the idea that the computer will discover mathematics and humans call it a day rather ridiculous. As if humans will not then spend their time understanding and incorporating the ideas from the computer.
Alphafold is a better example. Alphafold is only bad if you spent your life trying to solve protein folding. But even if you did, that is the same person who is the most setup to reap the benefits of the unlock in the pragmatic application of protein folding.
We don't figure out how to get machines to harvest corn and then spend all day sitting around eating corn in between naps.
It becomes another abstraction, really. As long as we can use it for something useful, it's still valuable.
If the LLM is operating at such a high level that it never actually constructs a useful product for humans to use, then how will that be good for humanity?
If you replace "LLM" with "mathematician" than this is the state of the world today. Stuff like Galois theory is beautiful mathematically, but what has it constructed or enabled for you and me?
A cpu (the physical thing that sits in your mother) is not an abstraction, what are you talking about
Stuff! Inscrutable stuff, maybe, but that's not "doing math for math's sake."
Yes, why not? And, of course, AI doing math for AI.
We may not be needed forever...