On Terence Tao's blog: LLMs as cultural technology, reframing the AI math breakthroughs
AlisonGopnik · x · 2026-09-15
Cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik reshares a guest post by Nestor Guillen on Terence Tao's blog, applying the "LLMs as cultural technology" framing from Farrell et al.'s 2025 Science paper to recent developments in AI mathematics.
Key points:
- Guillen argues the cultural-technology lens—comparing how skills spread in creative communities like skateboarding—best explains LLMs' role in the math community.
- The post notes a major breakthrough and controversy: Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge announced a finite-time blowup result for 3D incompressible Euler with forcing, alongside serious misconduct allegations against OpenAI; the next day OpenAI announced a finite-time blowup result for 3D Navier-Stokes with forcing from its internal LLM.
- Buckmaster credited the ideas of Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa in the blowup construction, which Guillen sees as validating his view of LLMs as cultural technologies that build on existing human ideas.
Related event: Gopnik Promotes 'LLMs as Cultural Technology' Lens on AI Math Gains(3 posts)→
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