Sriram disagrees with Terence Tao: who are the Millennium Prizes really for?
sebkrier · x · 2026-09-12
Responding to Terence Tao's question about AI and the Millennium Prize Problems, Sriram Krishnan reframes the debate: the real "misalignment" may be between the mathematical community and humanity. Are the prizes meant to incentivize progress for humanity or to foster the field of mathematics and mathematicians? He contrasts two cases: a prize for curing a rare cancer — nobody would care if AI solved it — versus long-running agents cracking the cryptographic puzzle of Kryptos, which would feel a little sad, as human artistry gets removed.
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