The ‘Mozart of Math’ isn’t worried that AI will replace math geniuses — ever

Terence Tao, a UCLA professor considered “the world’s greatest mathematician,” last month compared ChapGPT’s o1 model of thinking to an “average, but completely incompetent” graduate student who can correctly answer a complex analytical problem “with multiple hints.” and comfort.”

AI may never beat its human teachers, he now tells The Atlantic. “One important difference [today] between graduate students and AI that graduate students study. You tell the AI ​​that its method doesn’t work, it apologizes, maybe it will adjust its method for a while, but sometimes it just goes back to the thing it tried before. “

The good news for math prodigies, Tao added, is that AI and mathematicians will likely remain partners, where instead of taking over mathematicians, AI will enable them to explore larger, previously inaccessible problems. The Tao of the future says, “You may have some work and ask, ‘What if I try this method?’ And instead of spending hours and hours trying to make it work, you direct GPT to do it for you.”