“Believe in yourself”
An Anthropic staff member named Jared Sumner prompted an unreleased Claude model to attempt the Riemann hypothesis while jogging, using casual encouragements like 'believe in yourself' to push past the model's initial skepticism about its own abilities. Despite the informal framing, the hosts note the underlying execution was not casual: behind the scenes, Claude began operating as an orchestrator, coordinating further processes rather than simply generating a response.
- The hosts are skeptical of the marketing framing, noting that Claude's apparent Jacobian conjecture result also happened to coincide with the FIFA World Cup final, suggesting Anthropic has a pattern of dramatic timing.
- The hosts compare Sumner's encouragement style to Ted Lasso, the fictional coach known for relentless optimism.
Transcript
This chapter, from the episode video's captions · 249 words
57:39building blocks >> for what Claude is doing. >> For what Claude is doing. >> Okay. So, um Jared Sumner, right? He's a anthropic staff member. >> He's got no deep mathematical background apparently while jogging. I don't know how much this is hype, >> right? Cuz like the the the look the the the conjecture, the Jacobian conjecture, they happened to do it at the time of the FIFA World Cup final. Now he's jogging. It's like, [laughter] you know, >> good great marketing. Great marketing. >> It is great marketing. So anyways, let's take their word for it. He's jogging. He opens up a clawed terminal while jogging >> on his phone. Why don't you watch some Netflix or [laughter] something or hey, listen to this podcast, >> right? Right. That's a great that's a
58:19great >> Anyways, um I guess they're always working out in an anthropic. Okay, so he casually prompted the unreleased model to take a real stab at the Remon hypothesis. Okay, the model exhibited initial skepticism about its own ability and the human said, you know, almost comedic encouragements of like keep going and believe in yourself. >> Very Ted Lasso. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he Ted lassoed Claude into getting closer to the Remon Zeta. Insane. So, behind the scenes, the execution is not casual. Okay, what Claude is doing is not casual. The primary Claude model that was enacted on by Sumner, >> it starts orchestrating. It becomes an
59:00orchestrator
From What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis
Claude takes a real run at the Riemann Hypothesis, forcing us to ask what agentic AI can now do in mathematics, before we open the summer transfer window for America’s scientists.