Dirk Hanlon: mathematicians say, keep the hardest problems human, not AI. Gus: finally, I never did homework! Dot: father, Newton's laws explained the apple and the planets; three hundred years later they steered astronauts to the moon. Lorraine: understanding first, then power, they say. Gus: I understand pie.
Two applied mathematicians answer the AI maths boom with three hundred years of history: Newton's handful of laws explained the apple and the planets and, three centuries later, guided astronauts to the moon and home; quantum mechanics gave lasers and transistors; and when computers arrived in the Second World War to calculate artillery tables and break codes they were glorified adding machines that threatened nobody's understanding; the understanding, they argue, is what turned into power, and it is what is lost if the problems are handed to machines.
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Much Is Lost by Ceding Math's Hardest Problems to A.I.
The New York Times · Sep 29, 2020
