Comment by nahumfarchi

Perhaps mathematics was never about proving things? I know it sounds like moving the goal post, and it certainly was what motivated mathematicians on a day-to-day basis, but bear with me for a moment. I think that beyond being a creative activity that humans enjoy, math was about building new tools and systems of thought. Axiomizing things we take for granted, logic, linear algebra and calculus (on which modern LLMs rely so heavily) are such examples. People chose to participate in this field because they found it enjoyable and satisfying in some way. As a side effect, society reaped the benefits every couple of centuries. Will harvesting open problems with AI ever give us these things, or will we just be left laundry pile of Lean formalizations?