{"id":29947,"date":"2025-06-19T09:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29947"},"modified":"2025-06-19T09:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:25:13","slug":"can-a-i-quicken-the-pace-of-math-discoveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29947","title":{"rendered":"Can A.I. Quicken the Pace of Math Discoveries?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Breakthroughs in pure mathematics can take decades. A new Defense Department initiative aims to speed things up using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

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Artificial intelligence can write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman, provide dating advice and suggest the best way to cook an artichoke. But when it comes to mathematics, large language models like OpenAI\u2019s immensely popular ChatGPT have sometimes stumbled over basic problems. Some see this as an inherent limitation of the technology, especially when it comes to complex reasoning.<\/p>\n

A new initiative from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, seeks to account for that shortfall by enlisting researchers in finding ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an A.I. \u201cco-author.\u201d The goal of the new grant-making program, Exponentiating Mathematics<\/a>, is to speed up the pace of progress in pure (as opposed to applied) math \u2014 and, in doing so, to turn A.I. into a superlative mathematician.<\/p>\n

\u201cMathematics is this great test bed for what is right now the key pain point for A.I. systems,\u201d said Patrick Shafto, a Rutgers University mathematician and computer scientist who now serves as a program manager in DARPA\u2019s information innovation office, known as I20. \u201cSo if we overcome that, potentially, it would unleash much more powerful A.I.\u201d He added, \u201cThere\u2019s huge potential benefit to the community of mathematicians and to society at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Shafto spoke from his office at DARPA\u2019s headquarters, an anonymous building in Northern Virginia whose facade of bluish glass gives little indication that it houses one of the most unusual agencies<\/a> in the federal government. Inside the building\u2019s airy lobby, visitors surrender their cellphones. Near a bank of chairs, a glass display shows a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer\u2019s brain signals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBy improving mathematics, we\u2019re also understanding how A.I. works better,\u201d said Alondra Nelson<\/a>, who served as a top science adviser in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.\u2019s administration and is a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s kind of a virtuous cycle of understanding.\u201d She suggested that, down the road, math-adept A.I. could enhance cryptography and aid in space exploration.<\/p>\n

Started after World War II to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race, DARPA is most famous for fostering the research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet we use today. At the agency\u2019s small gift store, which is not accessible to the public, one can buy replicas of a cocktail napkin<\/a> on which someone sketched out the rudimentary state of computer networks in 1969. DARPA later funded the research that gave rise to drones and Apple\u2019s digital assistant, Siri. But it is also responsible for the development of Agent Orange, the potent defoliant used to devastating effect during the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

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Breakthroughs in pure mathematics can take decades. A new Defense Department initiative aims to speed things up using artificial intelligence.Artificial intelligence can write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman, provide dating advice and suggest the best way to cook an artichoke. But when it comes to mathematics, large language models like OpenAI\u2019s immensely popular ChatGPT have sometimes stumbled over basic problems. Some see this as an inherent limitation of the technology, especially when it comes to complex reasoning.A new initiative from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, seeks to account for that shortfall by enlisting researchers in finding ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an A.I. \u201cco-author.\u201d The goal of the new grant-making program, Exponentiating Mathematics, is to speed up the pace of progress in pure (as opposed to applied) math \u2014 and, in doing so, to turn A.I. into a superlative mathematician.\u201cMathematics is this great test bed for what is right now the key pain point for A.I. systems,\u201d said Patrick Shafto, a Rutgers University mathematician and computer scientist who now serves as a program manager in DARPA\u2019s information innovation office, known as I20. \u201cSo if we overcome that, potentially, it would unleash much more powerful A.I.\u201d He added, \u201cThere\u2019s huge potential benefit to the community of mathematicians and to society at large.\u201dDr. Shafto spoke from his office at DARPA\u2019s headquarters, an anonymous building in Northern Virginia whose facade of bluish glass gives little indication that it houses one of the most unusual agencies in the federal government. Inside the building\u2019s airy lobby, visitors surrender their cellphones. Near a bank of chairs, a glass display shows a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer\u2019s brain signals.\u201cBy improving mathematics, we\u2019re also understanding how A.I. works better,\u201d said Alondra Nelson, who served as a top science adviser in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.\u2019s administration and is a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s kind of a virtuous cycle of understanding.\u201d She suggested that, down the road, math-adept A.I. could enhance cryptography and aid in space exploration.Started after World War II to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race, DARPA is most famous for fostering the research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet we use today. At the agency\u2019s small gift store, which is not accessible to the public, one can buy replicas of a cocktail napkin on which someone sketched out the rudimentary state of computer networks in 1969. DARPA later funded the research that gave rise to drones and Apple\u2019s digital assistant, Siri. But it is also responsible for the development of Agent Orange, the potent defoliant used to devastating effect during the Vietnam War.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29949,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29950,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947\/revisions\/29950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}