Selke: AI avoids human cognitive bias by easily resetting polluted context
Mark Selke · Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning · Sep 8, 2026 · at 9:10
OpenAI researcher Mark Selke contrasts human cognitive fatigue and fixation in mathematical research with the ease of starting fresh AI sessions to pursue alternative approaches.
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“Like, as a human, if you have some, like, wrong path you go down for a while, it can be hard to, like, rewire your brain to, like, start over and, like, try a different path. Like, you're kind of, the initial idea is kind of linked in your brain with these other things that ended up not working. You know, it's sort of like your context window is, like, a little polluted and, like, you know, you can't just make another clone of yourself from, like, last week and say, you know, don't do this, try something else, build your intuition in another direction. But, You know, it's very easy to do this with an AI.”
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