Recreational Mathematics in the Age of AI

AI is changing mathematics very fast. I personally write papers faster and make far fewer typos. My friends, who are research mathematicians, are scared that they might soon become irrelevant. But what about math majors? A math degree is extremely versatile. Math majors find jobs in finance, insurance, cryptography, computer science, and so on. Not to mention teaching. Once a lawyer told me that mathematics was the best preparation for arguing cases. Funnily, when I teach my STEP students proof writing, I tell them to imagine that I am a skeptical judge and they want to convince me they are right. I personally worked as a specifications writer and an analyst. I did that at two different companies, but I was doing the same thing. I had to figure out what the client wanted, then translate it into a precise, high-level specification that programmers could implement. That experience seems especially relevant to working with AI. Before asking for a solution, we need to figure out what the…