Terence Tao’s ICM 2026 talk says AI could move math from proof scarcity to abundance
AlexKontorovich · x · 2026-07-25
At ICM 2026, Alex Kontorovich points to a talk by Terence Tao arguing that AI will shift where the bottlenecks are in mathematics.
The slide in the image says the field may move from proof scarcity to proof abundance: AI-generated proofs will pile up faster than humans can verify or rewrite them, verified proofs will still need readable writeups, and published work may become too numerous for the community to fully digest.
The broader implication is that policy, workflow, and peer-review norms in mathematics may need to change if machine-generated proof output becomes commonplace.
Related event: Terence Tao at ICM: AI Ushers Math into an Era of Proof Surplus(14 posts)→
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