How Terry Tao became an evangelist for AI in math

I should really know better than to say something like that for a figure as revered as Terry Tao, but, he has taken OpenAI's money to shoot an advert for them [1] and, sorry but I can't believe he is entirely unbiased; or very unbiased for that.

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[1] https://youtu.be/cdflu9ZXZGE?si=f1xi65r7kZM8s1JI

Terry Tao is a next level vibe coder: he inspires people to do his vibe coding for him. As someone with a background in advanced math, though never even close to Tao's level, I find myself skeptical about this type of mathematics. I don't personally find it beautiful and it feels like the line between the profound and the trivial (as in of minimal importance not difficulty) is blurry. One could argue for pure mathematics that is of no practical utility but is aesthetically beautiful, but I struggle to see the beauty in a gargantuan lean proof constructed by 100 different people. Perhaps this work will lead to deeper insight about the universe and the human condition, but I catch a whiff of problem solving for the sake of problem solving untethered from a deeper sense of purpose and meaning.

More accurate title would be "Terry Tao Became an Evangelist for Lean"

Quantamagazine is essentially Renaissance Fund, which is heavily invested in AI.

This is a clever piece reminding people of Tao's pre-AI Lean efforts. Now, however, Tao and especially Gowers are receiving AI money and have AI positions so they are far from unbiased.

Or maybe they have caught Feynman's "computer disease"? Either way, this is a hype piece.

mathlib and lean are currently too cumbersome for many researchers to use in say algebraic geometry, but maybe more suitable for combinatorics where it has been applied recently.

And I thought it was cocaine.

the smartest people see AI as an incredible tool that enhances their productivity.