AI Is About to Graduate Mathematics from Heroic Exploration to Industrial Mapping
Is mathematics over, or just graduating?
Christian Szegedy compares pure mathematics to exploring a perilous jungle, where explorers climb rocks to hone tools. AI is like the first airplane: primitive but improving fast. It has already solved conjectures, upsetting explorers who fear flag-planting ruins their sport. Szegedy argues this is a static-thinking fallacy. Soon, cheap AI will map the entire mathematical terrain, shifting rewards from heroic climbing to steering fleets and explaining findings. Mathematics will graduate into the infrastructure of science, and he can't wait to see it from his supersonic airplane.
Do not bet against the airplane. The skeptics who say AI can't conjecture, can't theorize, and can't explain are describing last spring's models. Within months, that description will no longer hold.