Comment by qlte
12 hours ago
Pure mathematics (defined by anything without a known application) exists not to "solve problems" in the real world, but by whatever mathematicians find interesting or lacking in current knowledge. Based on the agreed set of rules formed over time that ensure rigor.
It just so happens that even bizarrely esoteric math can later turn out to have some extremely useful and economically valuable applications. And even more useful to have mathematicians available who already understand that specific math.
In that case isn't it actually more valuable to have an AI do this? It works faster and solves more math.
The random engineer looking at a funny problem 10 years later now has the literal author of the math to talk to about it and implement it.
I have never even spoken to a world class mathematician and now I can have them design with me?
How is this not better in almost everyway?
Guess it depends...
If said human is kicked to the street with thousands of other homeless people that can't get jobs because AI then robots replaced them, then those fast math problems sound like a pretty bad trade off.
Now, if there's some future where AI leads to abundance and we can all live off UBI, well, probably a worthwhile trade.
The biggest issue I see is the more controversial people leading the AI race at the moment are not the kind of people I'd hand kids safety scissors much less the future of the human race.