Mathematics in the Age of AI

Re:Mathematics in the Age of AI by akk0 on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @03:35PM (#49366173)

For an exhaustive search, if you can explain to me: - how to exhaustively list the cases that need to be checked, and why that method is exhaustive - how to check each case, and why that works and then conclude with "we've had a computer do this exhaustive search, and the result came up as X", for me that satisfies completely understanding the proof.

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Re:Mathematics in the Age of AI by gowld on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:10PM (#49368358)

But the "computer" is magic, to you.

I could prove anything by claiming I completed a trivial-to-explain exhaustive search. The only support or refutation would be someone doing their own search. It's a very weak foundation.

We already had the ABC conjecture crisis: A theorem with a human-written proof so complex that no one besides the author can understand it. Some people claim to have refuted it. Most mathematicians are unqualified to decide.

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Re:Mathematics in the Age of AI by odyssey7 on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:00PM (#49369201)

If you prove that the theorem prover’s true and false determinations are correct—in the cases in which it can make them—then Bob’s your uncle.

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