Everyone uses AI for new math results; Kamath wants AI to simplify old proofs
thegautamkamath · x · 2026-10-06
Professor Gautam Kamath threads on a blind spot in AI for math:
- Nearly all attention goes to producing new results
- Almost nobody uses AI to find simpler, more elegant arguments for old results
- He'd love to see the literature 'cleaned up' with these newfound superpowers
Follow-ups: simplifications rarely get published since publication culture rewards being first (exceptions like Dinur's PCP theorem simplification); and in his experience current AI models struggle to produce human-interpretable, elegant solutions — AI works stacking technical modifications on each other accumulate obfuscation, even when an elegant solution existed.
Related event: Kamath calls for AI to simplify old proofs as 'science debt' piles up(7 posts)→
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