We’re Entering Uncharted Territory for Math
But technology companies are trying to get it there. Recent, attention-grabbing generations of AI—even the almighty ChatGPT—were not built to handle mathematical reasoning. They were instead focused on language: When you asked such a program to answer a basic question, it did not understand and execute an equation or formulate a proof, but instead presented an answer based on which words were likely to appear in sequence. For instance, the original ChatGPT can’t add or multiply, but has seen enough examples of algebra to solve x + 2 = 4: “To solve the equation x + 2 = 4, subtract 2 from both sides …” Now, however, OpenAI is explicitly marketing a new line of “reasoning models,” known collectively as the o1 series, for their ability to problem-solve “much like a person” and work through complex mathematical and scientific tasks and queries. If these models are successful, they could represent a sea change for the slow, lonely work that Tao and his peers do.
he described a kind of AI-enabled, “industrial-scale mathematics” that has never been possible before: one in which AI, at least in the near future, is not a creative collaborator in its own right so much as a lubricant for mathematicians’ hypotheses and approaches. This new sort of math, which could unlock terra incognitae of knowledge, will remain human at its core, embracing how people and machines have very different strengths that should be thought of as complementary rather than competing.
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**泰瑞斯·陶，全球最伟大的数学家，对AI有着独到的见解。**
被誉为“数学莫扎特”的陶，作为加州大学洛杉矶分校的数学教授，已斩获诸多荣誉，包括数学界的最高奖项。他被认为是当今世界上最顶尖的数学家。然而，当前的人工智能水平尚未接近他的高度。
尽管如此，科技公司正在努力缩短这一差距。目前大多数备受瞩目的AI系统，诸如ChatGPT等，主要侧重于语言处理，而非数学推理。早期的AI无法进行复杂的数学运算，而只是基于词语序列的可能性提供答案。然而，OpenAI的新一代“推理模型”（o1系列）正是专为解决复杂数学问题和科学任务而设计的。如果这些模型成功，将为像陶这样的数学家提供前所未有的帮助。
陶设想了一种由AI支持的“工业级数学”形式，虽然AI本身不会成为独立的创造性合作者，但可以作为数学家假设和推理过程中的辅助工具。这种新型数学，虽然前景广阔，但核心仍然是以人为本，强调人类与机器的互补性，而非竞争。
（2024年10月4日）
