Mathematics Without Mathematicians

Yesterday, OpenAI announced the solution to ten open problems in mathematics, all discovered by a yet-unreleased model. There’s only one, the coding theory one, where I know enough to say “huh, that’s important”, but according to the mathematicians I trust this is important. Inevitably, people will spin some sophistry to cope, to convince themselves nothing will change. And that’s fine. People need to cope. But we can’t put our heads in the sand forever while the world is transformed around us. So, here is a list of ways people will cope about AI taking over mathematics, and how each cope is likely to be refuted by reality. My intent is not to horribly depress everyone but rather to help them metabolize the implications of this technology. The arguments here are somewhat portable: replace “mathematics” with “botany” or whatever as needed. Moving the goalposts. Obvious and not worth addressing. “We will direct the AIs, point them at problems and research areas to solve.” The AIs will…