Back Rohan Paul

Rohan Paul· @rohanpaul_ai · X· 2026-11-01 21:16 · Original publication time AI score20

Terence Tao criticizes how AI is being used to solve math problemsMachine translation

Automatically verified and published · Generated and evidence-checked automatically; not reviewed by a human.

AI introduction

Terence Tao says mathematicians wanted AI as a calculator, not a competitor. Citing work on Navier–Stokes, he argues that pursuing immediate solutions through automation can disrupt a field’s development, though he expects researchers eventually to understand the proof and return to the field.

Original post · Original

Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai

Terence Tao has a problem with how AI is doing math, and it has nothing to do with whether the proofs are correct. 😀

Mathematicians wanted AI as a calculator, not a competitor.

"So, there was quite a lot of activity around Navier-Stokes, and now it’s all kind of in disarray. Eventually, we will recover. I think eventually we will understand that proof, and eventually people will come back into the field, but the way it was done was very suboptimal.

I think there’s a responsible way to solve problems that develops a field, and then there’s this irresponsible way, which is this emerging, sort of automated strip mining of these problems, where you get your immediate goal but at the cost of damaging the future development of the field."

- Terence Tao

----

Full video on "New Scientist" YouTube channel, (link in comment)

21:16 · 2026-11-01 · UTC+8

Found an error? Send a correction