Proving Theorems with Lean and Machine Learning
Abstract
AI agents can now write mathematics, including proofs of theorems relevant to Machine Learning, but we can’t trust them yet. Subtle errors might be hidden deep in the reasoning steps, and checking the proofs manually takes a lot of time and expertise.
The Lean theorem prover provides a way to write formal, machine-checkable proofs, giving us high confidence in their correctness. AI systems have managed to reach gold medal level at the International Mathematical Olympiad while producing Lean-checked proofs. Could we get them to write research-level, verified mathematics?
In this tutorial, we introduce Lean and its mathematical library Mathlib, and show how they can be used to write trusted proofs, in particular machine learning theory proofs. We then show how machine learning can help with theorem proving, and present recent advances in AI-assisted formalization.