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Physics Professors Are Using AI Models as Physics Tutors
Once you realize this headline isn’t satire, you’re closer to understanding the future
Podcaster Dwarkesh Patel had an interesting guest recently (when doesn’t he). Adam Brown is a theoretical physicist at Stanford and a researcher at Google DeepMind (Blueshift team). You won’t find many people better positioned to talk about the relationship between physics and AI.
Halfway through their three-hour conversation, Brown said something that caught me off-guard. In hindsight, it isn’t all that surprising — as long as you’re aware of the latest advances — but it may still shock you coming from a physics university professor:
A lot of physics professors are using [large language models] just as personal tutors.
Let’s break down this sentence, which is as profound as it is illustrative.
First, Brown, who probably knows plenty of physics professors, is not talking just about himself. He’s referring to a broader group we can describe as “people who know more about physics than anyone else in the world.”
Second, he’s referring to AI models as tutors. Of physics. For professors.
