system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How does an algorithm prove a mathematical theorem?

I recently heard in a talk that machine learning algorithms can now prove some mathematical theorems .what do they mean when they say that?Theorems aren't some mathematical problems that can be solved by following a series of steps  that can be automated for all I know.
gpt
The rules of mathematical logic can be followed by a program just as easily as the computer can perform arithmetic.  It's not all that complicated to write a program that knows how to take a set of true logical statements & combine them (using the rules of logic) into new logical statements that are also true - we've been doing it since the 60s.  If you combine enough logical statements, you'll eventually find a series of these that proves the theorem you wanted to prove.

The hard part comes in choosing how to combine your facts into new ones, figuring out dead ends that go nowhere & doing it all fast enough to figure out something worthwhile in your lifetime.  On top of that, finding the *shortest* proof and finding proofs that are easily understood by humans is also a challenge - a 5000 page proof is no use to mathematicians trying to understand what's going on.