Fields Medalist Alain Connes warns AI's real danger is the brain abandoning effortful thinking
hugobowne · x · 2026-09-12
Fields Medalist and CNRS Gold Medal winner Alain Connes on the danger of AI in mathematics: doing math requires constantly holding a mental image in mind, and the pervasive risk of AI is not leaving the brain time to build it.
He sees two dangers: AI results are often false, but the worse one is subtler — when a result arrives without effort and we trust AI, the brain stops following the reasoning and eventually decides thinking isn't worth the effort. That quiet abandonment, he argues, is worse than wrong answers.
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