The Verge's London-based AI reporter Robert Hart discusses the existential crisis unfolding in mathematics after OpenAI published solutions to longstanding math problems, sparking intense debate in the math community. Hart spoke with leading mathematicians about how AI is rapidly advancing from terrible at basic arithmetic to genuinely capable at professional-level abstract mathematics.
Mathematicians are now questioning the fundamental role of their profession if frontier AI models can solve outstanding problems. Academic institutions face questions about training new generations of human mathematicians when AI may answer all remaining questions. The field is grappling with what mathematics even means if AI handles the work.
The concerns extend beyond math to whether AI skills demonstrated in mathematics can transfer to other domains, and whether the intense focus on math is simply a marketing exercise for AI labs rather than genuine scientific interest in one of the oldest academic disciplines.