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.

  • cannedtuna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    192·
    14 hours ago

    “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

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      111·
      13 hours ago

      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.

      The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, without regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper’s arguments at the expense of their quality.

      The term “Gish gallop” was coined in 1994 by the anthropologist Eugenie Scott, who named it after the creationist Duane Gish, described by Scott as the technique’s “most avid practitioner”.[1][2]