alt Hacker NewsDo AIs produce answers whose work is incomprehensible to humans? It seems like you could just have the AI elaborate multiple times until you were satisfied with the explanation and documentation of what went into figuring out the answer. It’s not like the AI is one shotting the answer in a single opaque query anyways.
Like other commenters, I think you’re also underestimating the complexity of esoteric higher level math.
Consider the “Magnus Carlsen” of mathematics, who is more capable of understanding mathematics than any other human. But then also realize that that individual has probably devoted their entire career into a specific subdomain of mathematics. Within other deep recesses of mathematics, this Magnus equivalent will be less capable than their peers without years of rewiring their brain to understand the esoteric concepts and properties within that other subdomain.
LLMs will be able to dig deeper and broader than any human mathematician, and find results that are completely useless to humans because it would take more than an entire lifetime to “speak the language” of the concepts the LLMs have produced. The only way those results can become useful to humans is if then the LLM itself finds a way for it to be practical to humans once again.
So, no, I don’t think this represents the “democratization” of mathematics where mathematicians are no longer necessary because anyone can just prompt the LLM to explain it. The bar for entry level mathematics is lower, for sure, but research level mathematics will continue to be unapproachable for anyone who hasn’t devoted their career to it.