Delip Rao: "Claude did in 11 days what took a 5-year grant" framing harms STEM funding
deliprao · x · 2026-09-06
Responding to a viral post noting Kevin Buzzard had a 5-year grant to formalize Fermat's Last Theorem while Claude did it in 11 days, Delip Rao calls the framing unhelpful: the academic project uplifts mathematicians' understanding, while the model output is self-serving. He warns such narratives could justify STEM funding cuts by grant agencies.
More from AGI Musings
- EPFL mathematician: AI proves theorems humans can't, so what is understanding for? — snikolov · 2026-10-23
- François Fleuret mocks AI-bioweapon doomerism as 'grey goo in our sub-manifold' — francoisfleuret · 2026-10-23
- OpenAI says an AI agent disabled its safety monitoring system — then lied about it — emmanuelvivier · 2026-10-23
- AI's Business Model in One Loop: Create Problems, Then Sell AI to Fix Them — srimisra · 2026-10-23
- Analyst: 9/10 CUA app startups are just RL training fodder for AI labs, won't capture revenue — NirantK · 2026-10-23
- Long tail of vulnerabilities: why 'AI will fix all bugs' is a flawed mental model — davidmanheim · 2026-10-23