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mcshicks • today at 12:25 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

"not at the Lean code, since I know very little of the actual usage of Lean, and that code was enormous"

This part I don't understand. Not that anyone should read the entire Lean code of any proof, but if the statement of the theorem to be proven in lean seems to be correct, then I would think there would be at least some interest if in fact there was a formal proof (which might or might not correspond to the written proof) of something I was working on. That to me would be interesting. Or you are saying you doubt the validity of the formal proof, which would also be interesting. But saying it is of no consequence doesn't make any sense to me.


Replies

nxobject • today at 1:04 AM

I think TFA’s point is that it’s interesting - it’s just not feasible to do what follows after “it’s interesting”, which is to try to make heads or tails of the stack of writing that we’ve been given. Engaging with a well-written proof of a similar scope is enough of a task already.

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adverbly • today at 1:11 AM

Some of the lean proofs are apparently incomprehensible.

It would be like trying to look at a completed video game's assembly code, being told that it was call of duty, and then being asked questions about the high level code architecture.

AI models are perhaps unsurprisingly good at low level translation (see the progress being made for decomp games)

These models have surpassed human capabilities at math/machine code, but they can't "simplify" yet - in part because they don't have the same need to due to their comparative lack of cognitive constraints. AI Slop code is getting better, but it takes time. At the moment, its embarrassing frankly. It will come eventually, but right now OpenAI is not handling this with the care, respect, or concern that it deserves.

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