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.

  • CelloMike@lemmy.worldEnglish
    411·
    2 days ago

    There are two issues really - one is a perception that they’re not vetting any of this output, just dumping it out on the internet and expecting real mathematicians to actually check it all, so yes if a human was doing the same thing it’d probably still be suspect.

    The other is the widely held suspicion that much of the “breakthrough” mathematics here has been stolen from real researchers who’ve been using chatgpt to develop their theories by talking to it

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      I think a mathematician with no skin in the game should just make a big post saying “All 700 are wrong, no I am not going to show my work, if you disagree prove which one you think is right” put the ball back in OpenAI’s court.

      • patatahooligan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Maybe instead they should just generate slop counterproofs for every single one. Then everyone defending OpenAI’s dump will have to either read through all the shit or acknowledge that it’s not worth the effort to verify slop.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          They should care because if they don’t respond, everybody else stops caring and their PR stunt has little payoff.

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netEnglish
      512·
      2 days ago

      The other is the widely held suspicion that much of the “breakthrough” mathematics here has been stolen from real researchers who’ve been using chatgpt to develop their theories by talking to it

      I think that was just some rumor. In the end the accusation was that they basically brute-forced a solution using methods developed by someone else and claimed they solved it but those methods were public, not stolen because they used ChatGPT.