We’re Entering Uncharted Territory for Math: Terence Tao, the world’s greatest living mathematician, has a vision for AI.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/terence-tao-ai-interview/680153/?gift=2iIN4YrefPjuvZ5d2Kh308Tp6kHUI3f8eVN2oChBT20

4 Comments

  1. I saw him give a keynote lecture at a big math conference. The three main ideas I remember (it was a while ago, so I could be off a bit) were basically using AI to streamline/cut down on tedium for working mathematicians. 1) suggest proof techniques (big picture strategies, not so granular, “mistakes” don’t cost much time/energy here), 2) automated proof checking (we currently have an ad hoc, honor-system way of verifying each others’ work, which can be slow and propagate errors). 3) bridging the gap between sheets of handwritten notes and a carefully typed manuscript/checkable code.

    Again, this is my foggy memory, so any mistakes here are mine alone. I don’t want to misrepresent Tao or click a link that takes me out of reddit if I can avoid it…