← Back to context

Comment by pfdietz

8 hours ago

> Tao’s point is that juniors no longer have the path of solving a proof to earn Field’s medals.

This is a "you" problem for the math establishment, not a problem for the AI companies.

> This is a "you" problem for the math establishment, not a problem for the AI companies

This was a talk given to other mathematicians about the future of mathematics; sounds like only "you" have a problem for some reason.

Entirely correct. The math establishment needs fundamentally overhaul its incentive structure-irretrievably broken-to function under the assumption that AI involvement in research is completely ubiquitous.

  • I'd go beyond that and say they need to overhaul their culture and mode of operation. Math needs to be even more collective than it is today, without focus on ego reward and priority. They were already steps in this direction before this year's AI detonation: net-enabled collaboration, first informally and then with Lean formalization. Perhaps there should be a de-emphasis on naming things after people.