1,009 karma · joined September 17, 2021
If the comment is "the AI founder bros are hyping it up and it's not as good as they claim", I think we all agree that's true. LLMs are good, but exactly how good depends on many subjective points.
If the question is: "can we come up with questions that are easy for some tiny niche set of experts, but basically impossible for an LLM", I think the answer will always be "yes", especially if you can make "niche set of experts" more and more niche every time.
If the question is "will mathematicians be unemployed in a few years", obviously the answer is also "no".
If the question is "can LLMs be used to speed up mathematics research", the answer is "yes and no, depending on what you're doing".
I'm not sure if it's the same thing as dullness though?
If I can throw together a random project, completely isolated, that costs $0.10 per month, that enables me to do many orders more random projects than something that costs me $5 per month.
NYC has a paratransit system where you can essentially do something like this if you have a disability that stops you from taking the train (there's still lots of subway stops without elevators, etc). From my understanding it's nice in theory but borderline unusable given delays, ahead-of-time scheduling, and the endless gridlock in the city. So basically there to tick an ADA box...
Is there an alternative for that? Scale-to-zero postgres, basically?
> "developer": from the application developer (possibly OpenAI), formerly "system"
(That said, I guess what you said about "platform" being above "system"/"developer" still holds.)
Maybe in a few fields, maybe a masters level. But unless we come up with some way to have LLMs actually do original research, peer-review itself, and defend a thesis, it's not going to get to PhD-level.
I would add that reading this piece and the attitude the author has towards students, I doubt I would want to attend their class (or possibly even take it in the first place, professors have reputations).
Why would anyone switch from LaTeX to this other than the speed?
Also thanks for finding this data, didn't know it existed!
Also I think from NSF stats STEM PhDs are on a slow and upward trend, unlike the countries mentioned in the article.
EPA says a gallon produces 8.8 kg CO2/gal tailpipe emissions [0]. A best-case sedan does about 50 mi/gal [1]. That's 17.6 kg CO2/100 mi for a best case sedan.
A Tesla Model 3 uses about 25 kWh/100 mi [2]. 1 kWh produces about 1 kg CO2 when produced in the dirtiest way (coal), but in the US it's currently about 0.4 kg CO2/kWh on average [4]. That gives you 10-25 kg CO2/100 mi.
So the best case ICE is better only if you are producing the electricity from coal (even gas power is better than ICE). The nice thing about EVs is that you can often charge them with the cleanest power (e.g. solar), but I'm not sure how common that optimization is.
[0]: https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-t... [1]: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.shtml [2]: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=46206 [3]: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=74&t=11 [4]: https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US/12mo/monthly