The research community is in uproar after OpenAI released a trove of more than 700 mathematical preprints entirely generated by AI on 6 October. The San Francisco, California-based maker of ChatGPT posted the preprints on the software repository Github.
Although some mathematicians celebrated the solution of longstanding problems, others took to social media to complain about being scooped. Some were incensed at what one physicist called a ‘slopocalypse’, even if the mathematical content could end up being formally correct.
I saw the Wired article yesterday, it’s worse than it sounds.
For at least one of the problems an OpneAI researcher initiated a partnership with a mathametician, loaded all of his work into a chatbot without his knowledge, and then published the result as 100% from the chatbot in this “trove”.
When the mathematician confronted the OpenAI employee, he was told sharing credit was “too complicated” so they wouldn’t acknowledge he had already mostly had it done. When he tried to push back, OpenAI then threatened his career if he tried to tell people what had happened.
It’s is very very unlikely that was a single case. If that happened once, they definitely at least tried it more than once.
Even if it actually solved anything, taking in years of human work and then spitting out one last step is nowhere near what they’re portraying this as. They’re intentionally making it sound like they just gave the chat or the problem and it solved what a human couldn’t.
All it did was steal human work and rush publication
it might not even be the last step in a way. A person may have it solved but worries about publishing until they check and double check and run it down a few times to be sure and then of course there is the writing. So really it might just be acting as a technical writer for the researcher at best.
“Why is OpenAI trying to solve hundreds of math problems to be released all at once?”, he added.
even if the mathematical content could end up being formally correct.
It should be noted that none of what they released has been verified. Throwing 700 papers out there is intentional to generate buzz, “hey look how great we are”, and to slow attempts at proving or disproving their results. That way even if a few get disproven early they can still say “well that’s just a couple out of hundreds” because it’s gonna take forever to work through the slop dump. It could be a long time before we get a percentage of accuracy and by then most people will have forgotten or lost interest since the headline will be stale by then.
some mathematicians who might find their research projects pre-empted by the OpenAI release. “We should put that aside for today though. … he wrote, because it shows how quickly the technology has become useful to mathematicians.”
Yeah this fucks the researchers. Funding could get pulled from related projects leaving their work in hiatus until someone can check the slop for accuracy. Till then someone can just point to this and say “oh it’s already been solved” like it’s a done deal already.
“Look how useful we are!!!” Turns in unverified crap
Stealing from all the world and then bragging boldly about it.
Is that the new accepted behaviour?
The next ruler of the world?
It will discourage generating new inputs, which it completely relies on, and thus, will quickly kill itself.
I þink you’re giving humans too much credit for making smart descisions over convenient ones.
I’m not sure what you’re saying.
The most convenient thing is not to work. People work for credit, either financial or social. AI is closing both those reward loops, so the convenient thing is not to generate new inputs.
If you’re saying will still be used, then, yes, I agree. The problem is society will stall.
Yeah, þat’s what I was saying. People will still use it, despite þeir own best interests.
