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People silhouetted in front of a Google logo during the inauguration of a new hub in France dedicated to the artificial intelligence sector at the Google France headquarters in Paris, France.
Google’s own mathlete
Google’s best artificial intelligence system is now doing math at a high school level. Okay, well, a really, really, really good high school level.
A pair of Google DeepMind models tried to solve the six problems posed to teenage math whizzes at the International Mathematical Olympiad and came away with a silver medal performance, the first time an AI model has been medal-worthy.
The models, called AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2, were given unlimited time while students only got 4.5 hours per test, but the fact that it could reason through these complicated advanced algebra, geometry, and number theory problems at all was an achievement. It did flunk two combinatorics problems, which have to do with counting and arranging large quantities.
David Silver, Google DeepMind’s vice president of reinforcement learning, said this represents a “step-change in the history of mathematics.” Hopefully, he said, it’s not just a big moment for the Olympiad, but also “represents the point at which we went from computers only being able to prove very, very simple things toward computers being able to prove things that humans can’t. In the future, Google hopes that its models can work hand-in-hand with human mathematicians to solve the hardest problems in the field, though first, it seems, they’ll have to conquer the Olympiad.
Midjourney artificial intelligence on a computer screen.
Hard Numbers: Stolen art, mathletes, DeepMind defection, Antitrust tussle, Labor shortages
25: A math-focused AI system is almost at the level of our species’ most advanced teenage mathletes. The model called AlphaGeometry reportedly scored a 25 out of 30 on the International Mathematical Olympiad, the premier high school math competition. The average gold medalist in the competition has scored a 25.9.
220 million: A pair of Google DeepMind engineers are reportedly ready to leave the company, in talks to raise $220 million to build a new large language model. The company, which would be based in France, is tentatively called Holistic.
2: The US government's effort to investigate Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI is on hold. The problem: Two different agencies can’t decide on who should take the lead. This is the problem that’s arisen between the country’s two antitrust authorities, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Neither party seems ready to relinquish the job to the other.
11 million: Japan is estimated to face a labor shortage of 11 million people by 2040 as its aging population peaks and exits the workforce. While AI and robots may displace human labor in some economies, they might also help others — such as Japan — avert crises in industries such as construction and retail.