alt Hacker News> I still don't think if you trained an LLM with every pre-Newton/Liebniz algebra/geometry/trig text available, it could create calculus. (I'm open to being proven wrong.)
The experiment is feasible. If it were performed and produced a positive result, what would it imply/change about how you see LLMs?
Replies
sumeno • yesterday at 9:36 PM
How are you going to train a frontier level llm with no references to post 1700 mathematics?
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nathan_compton • today at 12:23 AM
I don't think its really feasible - there just isn't enough training data before calculus. I would guess all the mathematical and philosophical texts available to Newton and Leibniz would fit on a CD-ROM with loads of space to spare.
GP was stating that they don't believe this would happen (I don't either), but also to make the point that it's a falsifiable view. (At least in theory. In practice, there probably won't even be enough historical text to train an LLM on). No, I don't think it would be falsified. Asking what if I'm wrong is kind of redundant. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, duh.