The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an international math contest for really smart students.

This year, Google brought their AI, Gemini, to participate.

In the IMO, contestants are given 6 incredibly difficult math problems to solve.

Gemini solved 5 out of six, working in the same time frame given to human contestants, and scoring high enough to achieve gold medal status. It solved the problems neatly and even explained its work.

Honestly, not that surprising. Computers are getting better at math, everyone! It’s actually a huge step forward, though. Just last year, Google’s systems took multiple days to compute and couldn’t write out its proofs in natural language.

Google put out a short article with lots of credits and some technical jargon here if you want to read it. [link | interestingness level: 2/5]

OpenAI achieved similar results with its AI model during the IMO contest too. 

Professional mathematician Dave White had a firsthand opinion of how this feels. Even though he knew this kind of advancement was coming, he said that “it’s a kind of dying.”

A common feeling these days, as robots show they are good at more and more tasks once thought the domain of humans alone.

Just….don’t get caught up dreading a future that isn’t here yet. AI isn’t actually replacing humans in droves just yet.

People are still needed in almost every part of the process.

Maybe it’s coming, but not just yet. New technology tends to be overestimated in the short run and underestimated in the long run.

AI may consider Wiener dog racing “art” [link | interestingness level: 3/5] but has yet to automate Pietra Dura - inlay made from stone [link | interestingness level: 5/5] that was first developed during the Roman Empire.

Individual precious stones are hand cut to the utmost precision and finely polished to fit into a detailed mosaic and create images. The edges where the stones meet is practically invisible, which makes this require extreme skill and time.

AI might do it one day, but NOT YET.

AI only thinks it can do everything.

Riggers [link | interestingness: 4/5] are professionals who set up, move, and secure heavy loads when working with machinery.

The job requires extreme knowledge of weights and balance, especially when working in challenging environments, and mistakes can be life threatening and potentially cause massive amounts of damage.

Here is AI’s take on “balance” [link | interestingness: 4/5]. So yeah. Not a job that’s going to disappear overnight.

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