The news of the AI's medal win was published by thousands of media outlets and chosen as one of the year's biggest scientific breakthroughs by the journal Science. And this is where the story starts to get complicated. Because the news is a lie.
For more than two millennia, mathematicians have produced a growing heap of pi equations in their ongoing search for methods to calculate pi faster and faster. The pile of equations has now grown into the thousands, and algorithms now can generate an infinitude. Each discovery has arrived alone, as a fragment, with no obvious connection to the others. But now, for the first time, centuries of pi formulas have been shown to be part of a unified, formerly hidden structure.
Liam Delap has an interesting party trick that you wouldn't really expect a footballer to pull out of the bag. The Chelsea forward has gone on video a few times showing off his bizarre mathematical ability to quickly calculate the cube roots of large numbers.
Starting today, ChatGPT will generate dynamic visuals when you ask it to explain select scientific and mathematical concepts, including the Pythagorean theorem, Coulomb's law and lens equations. When ChatGPT responds with an interactive visual, you'll be able to tweak any variables and the equation itself, allowing you to see how those changes affect the solution.
Ministers have asked the exams watchdog, Ofqual, to extend current arrangements, providing GCSE maths, physics, and combined science students with formula sheets. Ofqual is consulting on extending this until current GCSEs are reformed following a curriculum review. The government will then consider if memorisation is required for new qualifications.
William Gib­son famous­ly observed that the future is already here, it's just not even­ly dis­trib­uted. That line is often thought to have been inspired by Japan, which was already pro­ject­ing a thor­ough­ly futur­is­tic image, at least in pop­u­lar cul­ture, by the time he made his debut with Neu­ro­mancer in 1984. But as any­one who's spent enough time in the coun­try under­stands - albeit not with­out frus­tra­tion - even twen­ty-first-cen­tu­ry Japan remains in many ways a pre-dig­i­tal soci­ety.
