chatgpt | Asaf Karagila

Posts tagged chatgpt

Why I don't trust Lean code from AI

Oct 10 2026, 00:41

So, I wrote a post about why I am not nearly impressed with OpenAI's preprint regarding the Partition Principle. But that is not nearly the whole story. Let me tell you one more thing.

I saw a few people who commented on my previous posts through various social posts and reposts. Many of them were understanding of the plight of mathematicians. Some were trying to make the following point: I claimed that I did not (nor I intend to) read the Lean proof generated by ChatGPT. Some people felt like this is a deal breaker, like this is a reason to disregard everything else I had to offer, because I will not accept this bit of code.

OpenAI, the Partition Principle, and mathematics

Oct 08 2026, 10:25

By the time I got out of bed yesterday, I had three people ask me if I'd seen the OpenAI announcement that the Partition Principle does not imply the Axiom of Choice. The number kept increasing during the day, and I can see why. I am famously interested in this problem.

Indeed, at least two people asked if I plan on sending Sam Altman a bottle of whisky, as promised in my Problems page. The answer to that is no. And let me explain to you why, and why you should be very angry at OpenAI.

I asked ChatGPT to look at a proof, here's what happened...

Jan 12 2026, 05:41

I saw a few papers on arXiv recently that were very clearly prepared by asking ChatGPT or some other GenAI to analyse an idea and write a paper. Of course, the papers contained obvious mistakes, but obvious to whom?

It is very well-known to experts on any topic who interacted with GenAI that one of the reasons they are so terrible is their need to appease the user. This is such a wonderful question you're asking!, and its fellow responses. We all know that although most of the questions students will ask us are not stupid, there can be stupid questions, and it's easy to feed them to an AI and see what kind of nonsense they spit back. Part of the reason, of course, is to see how they respond to the question (or the assertion itself) with praise or gentle disagreement.