Peter Woit
Mathematician and Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics department at Columbia University. Author of the book Not Even Wrong and of the long-running physics blog of the same name.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Peter Woit did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
-
Their wordsThe new AI agents have profound implications for mathematics research and I think the math community needs to start discussing specific ways to deal with these.
-
Their wordsthe math community needs to adopt a version of the ethical standards of experimental science. If you are using AI agents, you can't just give a proof (formalized or not), but need to also provide a detailed explanation of how these agents were used to get the result.
- 1 day earlier
-
Our reading
Israel's actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon amount to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Their wordsthis is all about support for the ongoing Israeli campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide, which continues with daily slaughter of civilians and demolitions of their homes and communities in Gaza, the West Bank, and now southern Lebanon.
↗The Situation at Columbia XXXVIImath.columbia.edu 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe Fascist regime now ruling the US both enables this and has effectively used bogus accusations of "antisemitism" to damage and exert control over prominent institutions they consider to be enemies.
↗The Situation at Columbia XXXVIImath.columbia.edu 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe campaign to paint anti-genocide demonstrations as "antisemitic", violent and threatening to people's "safety" began not under Trump but under the Biden administration.
↗The Situation at Columbia XXXVIImath.columbia.edu 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 13 days earlier
-
Their wordsThis is complete nonsense, a shame that The Economist has been taken in by it.
- 10 days earlier
-
Their wordsOne thing that is showing up is that, in hep-th as elsewhere, AI is being used to scam the public.
- 3 weeks earlier
-
Their wordsSo far I haven't seen AI agents doing anything new and important that I would care about, but maybe that's just a matter of time...
↗Requiem for a Field?math.columbia.edu 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsin an intellectually dead field, AI will just produce worthless junk. If what you feed it is decades of complicated and meaningless computations, it will just produce even more complicated and meaningless ones.
↗Requiem for a Field?math.columbia.edu 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe results have surprised me: these things are a lot more capable than I had expected.
↗Requiem for a Field?math.columbia.edu 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 11 days earlier
-
Their wordsI see nothing that looks like a significant new idea or any evidence this isn't a dead field.
-
Their wordsWhile in mathematics AI agents are starting to have a major positive impact on research (e.g. by resolving the Jacobian conjecture), the situation is very different in hep-th.
-
Our reading
AI-generated junk papers risk overwhelming the hep-th physics field with worthless content.
Their wordsThe result is something completely worthless, but not obviously distinguishable from many other things on hep-th, which is in serious danger of going from something sad and unhealthy to something completely overwhelmed with crud.