Ask HN: Why is problem solving in math still important in the AI age?

aamichail about 1 hour ago 2 comments

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AI will soon be better than almost all human mathematicians at math problem solving.

So maybe it's time for math teachers and students to stop worrying about developing strong math problem solving skills (e.g., via math contests, etc.)?

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bwfan123•about 1 hour ago

> AI will soon be better than almost all human mathematicians at math problem solving.

You misunderstand what mathematicians do. My favorite example is this: Birds can fly, but can they use their intuition to create a theory of flight, and then use that to build a plane ? This book by Bessis paints this really well [1].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mathematica-Secret-World-Intuition-Cu...

qubex•30 minutes ago

Mathematician here: if we relied on AI to solve mathematics then it would be analogous to painters giving up when photography arrived. Art is not about depicting a scene, it is about transferring emotions and meanings visually; mathematics is not about solving problems, but forming curiosities forming intuitions about the patterns that underlie our reality.