Align AI and Mathematics—to Something Else

Twenty five Fields medalists were initial signatories of the letter “A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics” in which they opine that “The goals of the AI companies and the goals of the mathematical community are severely misaligned”. They are right. As they say, the goals of AI companies do not seem to be aligned with “the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight”, and indeed, the “solutions [by AI companies] are [being] announced in a rush, leaving no time for a proper writeup, the isolation of new methods and ideas, and citing relevant previous work of others.” This is true (but ironically, the signatories themselves say they released their letter quickly because they “did not have the time to have a more consultative process.”) It is also true that the goals of the mathematics community do not seem to be aligned with “the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight”. This is clear, because if that were the goal, then the mathematics community would hold…