AI Impact: Is Starting a Theoretical CS PhD Today Still Worth It?
aminkarbasi · x · 2026-08-02
Amin Karbasi expressed concerns regarding the future of academic research in the age of AI. He noted that he genuinely doesn't know what advice to give students starting a PhD in applied mathematics or theoretical computer science (TCS) today.
Key insights:
- Mismatch of Timelines: In three to four years, by the time these students complete their PhDs, AI might be capable of working on problems at the very frontier of their research fields.
- Role Evolution Outpaces Education: We are entering a world where the role of a researcher will change faster than the duration of a PhD program. The academic community currently lacks good answers for how to educate the next generation of mathematicians and computer scientists.
More from AGI Musings
- Prof. Mollick: Lack of Verifiability in LLMs Is Real but Overstated — emollick · 2026-08-02
- OpenAI's Math Breakthrough Criticized for Lack of Transparency and Verification Details — geoffwolfe · 2026-08-02
- AI Is Undermining Academic Peer Review: Reviewers Pasting LLM Output Sparks Complaints — Kindly-Chemical6702 · 2026-08-02
- Is AI Superhuman at Theoretical Physics Yet? — danintheory · 2026-08-02
- Extrapolation: iPhones May Run Claude 3 Opus-Level Agentic Models by 2027 — appenz · 2026-08-02
- From Math Research to Quant Trading: The Power of an 'Epistemic Humility' AI Agent — RichmanRonald · 2026-08-02