To grieve, or not to grieve?

Recent events in the field of AI for mathematics have shown us beyond all reasonable doubt that the field is currently undergoing a rapid transformation, unlike anything that we have ever seen before. Language models are solving hard problems which humans could not, and mathematicians are reacting very differently to this news. I personally am extremely excited about the future of our field. However it is becoming clear to me that my views are not shared by everyone in the community: indeed, many of my colleagues seem to be upset. So let me start by outlining my understanding of their positions. The AI pessimists. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ model of the process of grief is now well-known: the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The first four of these are currently very well-represented within the mathematical community, and perhaps give some weight to the claim that many mathematicians are currently grieving what they perceive as a loss of something much…