optout on Nostr: I was impressed by AI again, how it can write and execute a program to factorize a ...
I was impressed by AI again, how it can write and execute a program to factorize a number, all on its own.
I had a presentation on bitcoin mining, and to illustrate asymmetric cost of some arithmetical operations, I used the below example. I offered a bounty on the factorization of 9508762877, to better engage the audiance:
I picked a number large enough so that it's unfeasible to solve by trying with a calculator (5-digit primes).
To my surprise, in about 10 seconds, I got the right answer!
The winner (l0rinc) used AI, with this minimal prompt:
```
factorize 9508762877
```
which gave the correct result quickly.
How? Internally, it created this Python script, and executed it:
```python
import sympy
# Number to factor
number = 9508762877
# Factorize the number
factors = sympy.factorint(number)
factors
```
Really cool! (Note: not all AI's are capable of this)
Published at
2025-03-26 09:31:25Event JSON
{
"id": "528181afbccedb20d78d34a52136e91079a9f028c7c11ae972fe8a6d8866b827",
"pubkey": "b190175cef407c593f17c155480eda1a2ee7f6c84378eef0e97353f87ee59300",
"created_at": 1742981485,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"r",
"wss://relay.damus.io/"
],
[
"r",
"wss://bitcoiner.social/"
],
[
"r",
"wss://nos.lol/"
],
[
"r",
"wss://nostr.huszonegy.world/",
"write"
],
[
"r",
"wss://nostr.land/",
"write"
],
[
"r",
"wss://relay.primal.net/"
],
[
"r",
"wss://relay.snort.social/",
"write"
],
[
"r",
"wss://nostr.wine/",
"write"
]
],
"content": "I was impressed by AI again, how it can write and execute a program to factorize a number, all on its own.\n\nI had a presentation on bitcoin mining, and to illustrate asymmetric cost of some arithmetical operations, I used the below example. I offered a bounty on the factorization of 9508762877, to better engage the audiance:\n\n https://m.primal.net/Ptah.png \n\nI picked a number large enough so that it's unfeasible to solve by trying with a calculator (5-digit primes).\n\nTo my surprise, in about 10 seconds, I got the right answer!\n\nThe winner (l0rinc) used AI, with this minimal prompt:\n\n```\nfactorize 9508762877\n```\n\nwhich gave the correct result quickly.\n\nHow? Internally, it created this Python script, and executed it:\n\n```python\nimport sympy\n\n# Number to factor\nnumber = 9508762877\n\n# Factorize the number\nfactors = sympy.factorint(number)\nfactors\n```\n\nReally cool! (Note: not all AI's are capable of this)",
"sig": "465d593fbcc3328b93450d7dca646180f3b81c8ae8efa994b30c252fb4efb4296169584a1dfe06edd5f52fdf233a5be0f7425f3d9b71dca6179162b02b0c285f"
}
