Delip Rao: "Claude did in 11 days what took a 5-year grant" framing harms STEM funding
deliprao · x · 2026-09-06
Responding to a viral post noting Kevin Buzzard had a 5-year grant to formalize Fermat's Last Theorem while Claude did it in 11 days, Delip Rao calls the framing unhelpful: the academic project uplifts mathematicians' understanding, while the model output is self-serving. He warns such narratives could justify STEM funding cuts by grant agencies.
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