Comment by matherial
1 day ago
"Discovery" is not a goal in itself. I could launch a project to find out how many people in the United States have names such that if you assign numbers to every character and then sum the values, the sum works out to 72. It's discovery, but it's useless unless it has some higher goal.
The labs are attacking these problems as a demonstration of capabilities, spending more money on the demos than any mathematician will ever see in their entire life. They don't care if the findings have any other value to anyone. Mathematicians have very different objectives for their work.
Right, mathematicians care about clout and tenure, which is a much higher purpose.
Yes, blame them for seeking out an upper middle class lifestyle with a relatively standard home in commuting distance of their place of work and dedicating the rest of their life to teaching mathematics to new generations of people. How vain a pursuit.
After all, the ascetics at openAI are having to make do with half a million total comp.
Built a top a pyramid of failed math undergrads, grad students, and mediocre post docs.
That half a million total comp is the consolation prize for the disillusioned.
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Are you saying that mathematicians are the bad actors here? Compared to Sam Altman spending ungodly amounts of money to upstage them ahead of IPO?
I care about paying my bills and job security and peer recognition. That's a normal human thing to do, not some vice. You don't?
this guy already has clout and tenure
I don't know about you, but if I apply myself fully to a problem and study it to the point where I'm literally one of the world's experts on it and then some assholes in Silicon Valley take my research and claim it for themselves, I will probably not feel too great about that...