All the drama around AI’s takeover of mathematics
All the drama around AI’s takeover of mathematics
关于人工智能接管数学领域的所有风波
By Robert Hart 作者：Robert Hart
This past year, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other labs have announced breakthroughs on numerous long-standing mathematical problems, in some cases pushing well beyond what researchers expected current systems to be capable of — including resolving one of the famous Millennium Prize problems. But in classic Silicon Valley style, AI labs are moving fast and breaking things, barreling through the discipline with all the grace of a runaway bulldozer. Results that might normally have been celebrated have instead sparked backlash. AI labs say they are learning from earlier mistakes. Whether those promises bear fruit remains to be seen. 在过去的一年里，OpenAI、Anthropic 和其他实验室宣布在许多长期存在的数学难题上取得了突破，在某些情况下，其表现远远超出了研究人员对当前系统能力的预期——包括解决了一道著名的“千禧年大奖难题”。但以典型的硅谷风格，人工智能实验室正在“快速行动并打破常规”，以一种横冲直撞的姿态闯入这一学科。本应受到庆祝的成果反而引发了强烈抵制。人工智能实验室表示，他们正在从早期的错误中吸取教训。这些承诺能否结出硕果，还有待观察。
OpenAI keeps bulldozing mathematicians
OpenAI 继续横冲直撞地对待数学家
In a chaotic few months, OpenAI has demonstrated it can do two things with remarkable consistency: make impressive breakthroughs in mathematics, then colossally screw up announcing them. OpenAI is now trying to do better. Somehow, it has botched that too. 在混乱的几个月里，OpenAI 证明了它能始终如一地做两件事：在数学领域取得令人印象深刻的突破，然后以极其糟糕的方式宣布这些成果。OpenAI 现在正试图做得更好，但不知何故，它又把这件事搞砸了。
OpenAI’s latest attempt to repair fractured relations with a mathematical community it has repeatedly alienated is to consult a new independent advisory group of elite practitioners. But mathematicians speaking to The Verge, including one of the group’s members, describe a messy and confusing affair bearing many of the hallmarks of OpenAI’s previous rushed forays into mathematics, suggesting the company has learned little from its mistakes. And then there’s the daunting task the group has been handed first: helping coordinate the release of scores more results OpenAI says its unreleased model has produced, the prospect of which is already stirring dread among researchers over what this looming tidal wave of breakthroughs could do to their field. OpenAI 最近试图修复与数学界破裂的关系——此前它已多次疏远该群体——其方式是咨询一个新的由精英从业者组成的独立顾问小组。但接受《The Verge》采访的数学家（包括该小组成员之一）描述称，这是一场混乱且令人困惑的事件，带有许多 OpenAI 此前仓促涉足数学领域时的特征，这表明该公司几乎没有从错误中吸取教训。此外，该小组首先面临的一项艰巨任务是：协助协调发布 OpenAI 声称其未发布模型所产生的数十项新成果。这一前景已经在研究人员中引发了恐慌，他们担心这股即将到来的突破浪潮会对他们的领域造成什么影响。
OpenAI wants to consult elite mathematicians about how to not fumble again
OpenAI 希望就如何不再“掉链子”咨询精英数学家
After turning a string of spectacular mathematical results into a reputational crisis, OpenAI is consulting human mathematicians to help it figure out a less disastrous path forward. 在将一系列惊人的数学成果演变成一场声誉危机后，OpenAI 正在咨询人类数学家，以帮助其寻找一条不那么灾难性的前进道路。
On Monday, the company announced a new independent panel of mathematicians tasked with advising it and other AI companies on their interactions with mathematical research and the wider mathematics community, including how new results are presented and released. Its abrupt arrival caught many mathematicians by surprise. Researchers told The Verge the group is a good first step, but many said they were left with basic questions about what it will actually do, how much influence it will have, and whether OpenAI will actually listen to it, as well as concerns over whether such a small group of prominent researchers can represent the wider mathematical community. 周一，该公司宣布成立一个新的独立数学家小组，负责就其与其他人工智能公司如何与数学研究及更广泛的数学界互动提供建议，包括如何展示和发布新成果。该小组的突然出现让许多数学家感到意外。研究人员告诉《The Verge》，该小组是一个良好的开端，但许多人表示，他们对该小组的实际职能、影响力大小以及 OpenAI 是否真的会听取其建议仍存有基本疑问，同时也担心这样一小群杰出的研究人员是否能够代表更广泛的数学界。
OpenAI just wants to win
OpenAI 只是想赢
OpenAI has spent the last few years planting flags across the increasingly difficult terrain in mathematics. This week, it claimed one of its biggest prizes yet: a solution to a legendary Millennium Prize problem. In normal circumstances, this would have been celebrated as a historic achievement. 过去几年里，OpenAI 一直在数学这一日益艰难的领域中“插旗”。本周，它夺得了迄今为止最大的奖项之一：解决了千禧年大奖难题。在正常情况下，这本应被誉为一项历史性的成就。
Instead, many mathematicians have watched OpenAI’s relentless advance with growing unease. To them, the company appears less like an enthusiastic newcomer than an impossibly well-resourced interloper, charging into problems they have dedicated their lives to studying with little apparent regard for long-standing norms or the consequences for those left in its wake. At the heart of that unease is a sense that OpenAI is doing mathematics for different reasons. Mathematicians want to advance the field. OpenAI wants to win. 然而，许多数学家却怀着日益不安的心情注视着 OpenAI 的无情推进。对他们来说，这家公司看起来不像是一个热情的初学者，而更像是一个资源极其雄厚的闯入者，冲进他们毕生研究的课题，却似乎丝毫不顾及长期以来的学术规范，也不顾及对那些被甩在身后的人所造成的影响。这种不安的核心在于一种感觉：OpenAI 研究数学的动机与众不同。数学家们想要推动学科发展，而 OpenAI 只是想赢。
Mathematicians want proof OpenAI didn’t use their work
数学家们要求 OpenAI 证明其未剽窃他们的研究成果
Another researcher is challenging OpenAI about the data driving its increasingly impressive array of mathematical discoveries. Just days after a bitter row erupted over whether the company’s models benefited from unpublished work, a second mathematician has come forward accusing the AI giant of unethical and “dishonest” behavior and a lack of transparency about the origins of its training data. 另一位研究人员正在就驱动 OpenAI 日益令人印象深刻的数学发现背后的数据提出质疑。就在关于该公司模型是否受益于未发表研究成果的激烈争论爆发几天后，第二位数学家站出来指责这家人工智能巨头存在不道德和“不诚实”的行为，并对其训练数据的来源缺乏透明度。
In a series of posts on Mastodon, mathematician Andreas Thom raised concerns that interactions he and his colleagues had had with the ChatGPT chatbot before OpenAI’s triumphant announcement may have contributed to its success in the field. One of the 10 results OpenAI announced with great fanfare last month involved Thom’s area of expertise, so-called non-sofic groups, and OpenAI acknowledged that their result built heavily on previous work by Thom and fellow mathematician Gábor Kun. 在 Mastodon 的一系列帖子中，数学家 Andreas Thom 提出担忧，认为他和同事在 OpenAI 宣布胜利之前与 ChatGPT 聊天机器人的互动，可能对其在该领域的成功有所贡献。OpenAI 上个月大张旗鼓宣布的 10 项成果中，有一项涉及 Thom 的专业领域——所谓的“非索菲克群”（non-sofic groups），OpenAI 也承认其结果在很大程度上建立在 Thom 和数学家 Gábor Kun 此前的研究基础之上。
OpenAI’s sly mathematical breakthrough sends a chill through academia
OpenAI 的“狡黠”数学突破让学术界感到寒意
OpenAI’s announcement Tuesday that it has solved one of mathematics’ legendary Millennium Prize problems should have been a moment of triumph. The result is both an undeniable achievement and a striking demonstration of just how rapidly AI is transforming mathematics. But before it was even formally announced, the breakthrough had been complicated by the unusual circumstances that prompted OpenAI to pursue the problem: After hearing other researchers were making progress, it seems to have thrown its considerable resources into a last-minute effort to beat them to the punch. The ensuing controversy has surfaced allegations of scooping, spying, and flagrant violations of long-standing academic norms that researchers fear could have a chilling effect on the field. OpenAI 周二宣布解决了数学界传奇的“千禧年大奖难题”之一，这本应是一个胜利的时刻。这一结果既是一项不可否认的成就，也令人震惊地展示了人工智能正在以多快的速度改变数学。但在正式宣布之前，这一突破就因 OpenAI 追求该问题的不同寻常的情况而变得复杂：在听说其他研究人员取得进展后，它似乎投入了巨大的资源进行“最后一刻的冲刺”，以抢在他们之前完成。随之而来的争议引发了关于抢发成果、间谍行为以及公然违反长期学术规范的指控，研究人员担心这可能会对该领域产生寒蝉效应。