Terence Tao: Mathematics in the Age of AI and Our Community Values
Terence Tao: Mathematics in the Age of AI [pdf]
I argue that as AI tools rapidly advance in solving research-level mathematical tasks, our community faces a crisis in values rather than just foundations. We must move beyond debating AI capabilities to critically examine our true goals, from solving problems to building enduring knowledge. This shift forces us to define what mathematics means when human effort is no longer the sole driver of discovery.
I believe we are entering a similarly turbulent period—a crisis in the foundations of mathematical values and practices. But once we thoroughly examine and codify these foundations, our community will emerge stronger and more resilient than before.
- andyjohnson0
A couple of predictions:
1. I fear that AI is about to change from being a human art to becoming a bulk-extruded, industrial product.
2. I also suspect that mathematics is about to become substantially less open. As the number of entities on the planet that are capable of top-level maths explodes, and because most of those entiries will have no interest in the validation that publishing papers brings, we will see balkanisation and hoarding of "secret maths".
- light_triad
This is the taste question applied to Mathematics in a similar way it's been applied to code. In an era of AI abundance, the question becomes what the goals are and what gets verified and digested (adopted by users). Goodhart’s law: the goal of producing code is not just about maximizing the number of tokens used, but the productivity gains and economic surplus.
This could serve as the template for any field in the age of AI:
"We are not trying to meet some abstract production quota. The measure of our success is whether what we do enables people to
understand and think more clearly and effectively about math (or products, or science, or hardware...)"
- doomrobo
Recording of a talk with the same title. I’m not certain it’s the same content as the linked PDF though