Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have received immense interest for their general-purpose language understanding and, in particular, their ability to generate high-quality text or computer code. For many professions, LLMs represent an invaluable tool that can speed up and improve the quality of work. In this note, we discuss to what extent they can aid professional mathematicians. We first provide a mathematical description of the transformer model used in all modern language models. Based on recent studies, we then outline best practices and potential issues and report on the mathematical abilities of language models. Finally, we shed light on the potential of LLMs to change how mathematicians work.

翻译：大型语言模型（如ChatGPT）因其通用语言理解能力，尤其是生成高质量文本或计算机代码的能力，而受到广泛关注。对于许多职业而言，大语言模型是提升工作效率与质量的重要工具。本文探讨了大语言模型在多大程度上能够协助专业数学家。我们首先对所有现代语言模型中使用的Transformer模型进行数学描述。基于近期研究，我们随后概述了最佳实践与潜在问题，并报告了语言模型的数学能力。最后，我们揭示了大型语言模型改变数学家工作方式的潜力。