AI can learn logic. But can it learn folklore knowledge? - Svetlana Jitomirskaya

AI can now reason through proofs and master logic. But mathematical physicist Svetlana Jitomirskaya thinks there’s something it still can’t learn: the unwritten intuition that guides real mathematicians. “Folklore knowledge”: insights passed quietly between experts, never captured in a textbook or a dataset. She reflects on what separates AI’s new powers of logic from the kind of creativity that defines human thought: the ability to form intuition from only a few examples, and to sense patterns no data could reveal. She doesn’t know how a machine could be trained to try something genuinely new, but she suspects this limit might not hold forever. Her hope is that before that day comes, AI will help create a fully verified database of all mathematical knowledge, freeing humans to focus on discovery. -- Episode links -- Transcript: https://epochai.substack.com/p/ai-can-learn-logic-but-can-it-learn -- Timestamps -- 00:00:00 – Why folklore knowledge stumps AI 00:02:46 – "It tried to pretend it had solved it" 00:03:42 – Delegating lengthy arguments to AI 00:05:05 – Automating routine math 00:05:50 – The 3-example problem of human creativity 00:07:38 – The end of mathematical errors 00:09:33 – Is a superhuman proof still math? 00:12:23 – We'll still do math when AI is smarter