It differs because LLMs can and will eventually make inferences, even if they're not truly intelligent. They can do things that one can't predict ahead of time. In that regard, it's very different than asking a computer to multiply together two degree twenty polynomials. I could do it by hand theoretically in a completely mechanical fashion, but AI can do some basic inferences.
> There is something about mathematical discovery (progress, advancement, creation) which is vital to the spiritual, experiential quality of doing mathematics. The creation (or even the pursuit) of novel mathematics is one way that humans have historically accessed the ineffable and encountered the divine and mystical.
“ one way that humans have historically accessed the ineffable” that’s my question, what about the other ways that have been automated away. Is there something special about mathematics or is it the authors first encounter with obsolescence?
The automatic dishwasher has replaced the human dishwasher, but I highly doubt that dishwashing was one way that humans have historically accessed the ineffable.