Terence Tao on What Mathematicians Really Value in the Age of AI
Mathematics in the Age of AI
In an essay based on his 2026 ICM lecture, Terence Tao sidesteps the debate over AI's capabilities and asks a deeper question: what are the true goals and values of mathematical research? Using problem-solving as a case study, he explores how the mathematical community might respond when AI can perform research-level tasks, offering a thought-provoking perspective on the future of the field.
Rather than debating the capabilities of such tools, we condition on the hypothesis that these capabilities will arrive, and examine instead a question that is orthogonal to it: what the goals and values of mathematical research actually are.