alt Hacker NewsThis HN thread depressed me. I’m still thinking about why.
Look past the press-releasey gushing from OpenAI and there are all sorts of interesting and subtle questions here about the role for LLMs in mathematical research. I urge folks to click through to the accompanying comments from mathematicians published alongside the result. There is a really interesting discussion going on. I particularly recommend Tim Gowers’ remarks. This is really interesting stuff!
Yet the comments are just a battleground of people rehearsing the same tired arguments about LLMs from 2023, refutations of those arguments, angry counters, etc.
Does it make anyone else sad that the battle lines seem to have been drawn 3 years ago and we just seem to have the same fights over and over?
I wonder if we’ll still be doing this two years hence.
Replies
People are afraid for their livelihood. What do you expect?
I find it understandable, it is common to evaluate human intelligence vs AI as a zero-sum competition, because that is how employers typically understand it and LM providers market it. AI proving itself moves the needle in an uncomfortable direction for all of us without very robust job security.
> I wonder if we’ll still be doing this two years hence.
It is going to take some time for people to recognize that AI has a very different set of competencies that compliments human intelligence rather well. It is unlikely to eclipse human intelligence at scale, and the companies betting on that will fall behind. That is when the conversation will start to shift.
I think part of it is that one side throws rocks and so it never even matters was is in the article. It becomes a battle if the article is good or the article is shit.
Yes, I'm tired too. I want you have real discussions about these things. But the problem is everyone believes their reality is real and anyone's reality that disagrees is fake. It just escalates. I take long breaks from HN because I realize I just come to the forums and end up being angry. Why do we do this to ourselves? The reality is that at a core level we usually want the same things.
We won’t be doing it in 2 years. By then my side will have won!
Yes, this and every internet forum will still be doing this two years hence. Your life will be better if you take to heart this famous passage from Nietzsche:
I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation.