Ask HN: Is AI good enough for math exercises?

Hi, I need to brush-up and deepen my math knowledge at undergrad level.

I plan to work from books (Tao's Analysis, Spivak etc.) and ask an AI to correct my solutions to exercises (not do the teaching). I have access to Gemini Pro and a Macbook M5 so maybe a Qwen version should run locally.

Do you think AI is good enough for such a task? Or should I expect some mistakes in reasoning and/or hallucinations? I am not super good at proofs and I'd like to improve. I would appreciate any feedback from anyone who had similar experience.

3 points | by Qision 14 hours ago

2 comments

  • hackermailman 7 hours ago
    You can use Lean with Tao's book https://github.com/teorth/analysis

    If you've never used Lean try some of this https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/ you will eventually just pick it up then can start understanding Mathlib abstract tactics.

    There's modern analysis books too for example this teaches a simpler version of what is sometimes called the Guage integral or Henstock-Kurzweil integral. Then you don't have to waste time with 'improper integrals'. https://classicalrealanalysis.info/Free-Downloads.php it has solutions and hints

    • Qision 6 hours ago
      Do you think it is long to learn enough Lean to do the exercises? I never used it and I don't need it at work so I don't know if it's really something I need
      • hackermailman 5 hours ago
        Up to you but since AI is firing out proofs in Lean why not learn it unless you want to unplug and do it all by hand. It doesn't matter.

        Lean is a proof assistant to verify your own work and if you know basic types in programming it will be trivial to pick it up as Tao will give a template to work with. Then AI or Tao's book can tell you what the tactics mean like 'by rfl' (reflexive equality).

  • gus_massa 8 hours ago
    Yes.

    For short exercices with clear goals, AI is super good.

    For long open ended tasks, you have to steer it and/or pay $15,000,000.