AI Just Proved a 50-Year-Old Math Conjecture—What Happens to Mathematicians?

Is mathematics about to enter the conservatory?

A new paper by Wang & Wu claims to prove the Spherical Hadwiger Conjecture, open since 1974, with AI assistance. The authors used OpenAI Codex to develop proof details and edit the manuscript. This milestone, coming alongside Claude's formalization of Fermat's Last Theorem, raises urgent questions about the future of pure mathematics. As AI takes over the labor of proving theorems, the author asks whether mathematics will become like classical music—preserved in a conservatory, but no longer a thriving creative field.