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 LMMs to change how mathematicians work.

翻译：诸如ChatGPT等通用大语言模型因其卓越的语言理解能力及生成高质量文本或计算机代码的能力而备受关注。对众多职业而言，大语言模型已成为加速工作进程、提升工作质量的宝贵工具。本文旨在探讨大语言模型能在多大程度上助力专业数学家。我们首先从数学层面描述所有现代语言模型所采用的Transformer架构。继而，基于最新研究成果，我们概述了最佳实践方案与潜在问题，并报告了语言模型在数学能力方面的表现。最后，我们揭示了这类模型可能改变数学家工作方式的巨大潜力。