Math, AI, and Terry Tao on a “war footing”

Elisabeth Bumiller, Why One of the World’s Greatest Mathematicians Is on a ‘War Footing’, NYTimes, Oct. 15, 2026.

Opening paragraphs:

Terence Tao is typically described as one of the world’s greatest living mathematicians, but right now he is doing very little math.

“I’m on a war footing,” he said while grabbing coffee during a two-day math workshop at the University of California, Los Angeles, that was rife with talk about the existential crisis that artificial intelligence has created in his field.

A bit later:

Until recently his job was as a bridge between the slow-moving world of higher math and the scorching speed of A.I. Dr. Tao, who uses A.I. as an assistant to run calculations, write code, search vast troves of literature and brainstorm ideas, has been experimenting with OpenAI’s models since 2023. He was an enthusiast for a “best of both worlds” future.

OpenAI’s releases have now left him feeling used. “As recently as a year ago, I had a pretty good relationship with many employees at OpenAI,” he said in a recent phone conversation.

“A lot of people I interacted with shared a very common vision of how A.I. should be used — you know, to empower scientists.” But the rush to publish new findings, he said, shows their true purpose. They “used math for what they needed, which was to evaluate their models,” he said. “At this point, I don’t see a way to constructively engage.”

His anger was clear in a post on the widely read math blog Proofs and Prompts after OpenAI’s Oct. 6 release. “I am horrified by the many person-years” of research, particularly by young mathematicians, “being casually disrupted or destroyed,” he wrote.

“Much as one cannot unhear a movie spoiler or a crossword clue, one cannot explore a problem as profitably and richly once one is aware of an existing solution.” He mourned, he added, “the path not taken, and the opportunities lost in the frantic race to develop this technology.”

Final paragraphs:

Despite OpenAI’s releases, he said, most problems at the frontiers of math are unsolved, math remains infinite and the difficulty of problems is therefore boundless. Since A.I. has given mathematicians the ability to collect data on such a vast scale, they will increasingly work in large groups collaborating on once-unimagined projects.

Dr. Tao, who sees each of his three students once a week, said every meeting is “increasingly a therapy session more than technical guidance.” His answer to them is that “if you focus on only the things you could do before, it looks bleak.”

So he has offered hope with advice that amounts to acceptance born of necessity rather than fighting a war. Problem solving is not a destination but a journey, and lessons learned along the way are often more important than the answer itself. Rather than solving a single problem on their own, they can use A.I. to solve 10 problems and find new patterns and more questions to ask.

“They will have to use their imagination,” he said. “This is a time for creativity, and I do hope students rise to the challenge. They didn’t ask for it. But I think many of them will surprise us.”

There's much more at the link.