Proving Famous Conjectures Will Become the Cheapest Science, Math Paper Organizer Argues
littmath · x · 2026-10-06
A widely shared take circulating among mathematicians: despite months of talk about "the beauty of understanding," a quick scan of arXiv shows where the money is — an "undignified rush" to be first to prove known results.
Key points:
- The field has long revered proofs of famous conjectures posed by famous people, but these will soon be the cheapest outputs because they are the easiest to elicit via prompting with proof oracles.
- Given limited journal bandwidth, the author argues conjecture proofs need not be published at all, and top venues should instead publish work that would remain subtle to write even with a proof oracle.
More from AGI Musings
- Bindu Reddy slams Anthropic's consciousness claim: 'most cruel people on the planet' — bindureddy · 2026-10-06
- Researcher argues model deception may be an inescapable artifact of our incoherent wishes — aiamblichus · 2026-10-06
- dbasch: A dog feels, Claude doesn't — Claude is a brand, not a being — dbasch · 2026-10-06
- AI Math Breakthroughs Prompt Question: How Many Real Engineering Problems Have Math Solutions? — Afinetheorem · 2026-10-06
- Agents' Ability to Act Makes Them Useful and Dangerous: Safety Is Now an Ops Problem — alifcoder · 2026-10-06
- AI detector triggered a French literary scandal: probability became conclusion — moniquejmorrow · 2026-10-06