AI is destabilizing shared meanings of words like math, knowledge, and progress
paraschopra · x · 2026-07-21
The author argues that AI is breaking shared assumptions about what words and human activities mean.
Using the recent AI-assisted disproof of Jacob’s conjecture as an example, the post says people are talking past each other when they claim either that “math is done” or that “math is just getting started.” The real issue is that terms like math, done, knowledge, and progress are being used with different hidden assumptions.
The conclusion is that AI will make this ambiguity worse across many domains unless people first deconstruct what they actually mean by broad human activities.
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