  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.
