Does Ankur Moitra Feel More Intellectually Lonely?

Ankur Moitra says he might feel more intellectually lonely than before. He feels very excited. The night OpenAI dropped the results was interesting but not entirely unexpected, because for weeks there had been rumors about the two biggest problems in his areas, the Unique Games conjecture and RL equals L, plus rumors about matrix multiplication. His first reaction was that it was all true, and he was glad the work was finally public so people could go through it, process what happened, and figure out what to do next.

The feeling changes on a daily basis. The biggest feeling is being pulled in two very different directions. His work has always been about asking the right questions, and the tools increase his ability to learn about other fields, like a world expert teaching in his own language, which magnifies his ability to make connections. Mentorship is the part of the job he loves most: training grad students and postdocs and having them come along on the journeys. The playbook and the blueprint for success are thrown out the window, so it is harder to advise students and postdocs about work that will make an impact and make a name for themselves.

Great results, at least for him, often come from asking very humble questions. Anxiety and dread now come with the feeling that standing out in the sea of AI results would take something really momentous, and some of the patience for planting the seeds from which the great oak trees grow has been lost.