watching one of the smartest people in the world declare phDs are dead due to ai is a sight to behold. he makes a good argument:
- humans had to study for 10+ years to be qualified for a phd. now AI models compress that into minutes.
- in order to get a phd you had to make an original contribution. AI can now do that 24/7 far outpacing human candidates AND the answers are so complex you need ANOTHER ai to even understand it.
so what worth does a math phd have now? maybe it’s the ability to explain an AI generated solution?
openai’s solving of Navier Stokes set off a domino effect that’ll change the way we approach academic research.
i do not however think we should slow down - humans instead need to adapt to this new world. in the same way the advent of the internet and youtube changed people’s access to knowledge.
Mathematician Terence Tao:
"we have to slow down AI. the pace is insane, and there's no reason to be this fast — no reason at all"
It's amazing how willing we are to change everything without any idea what happens afterward
These are extremely nonlinear dynamics