Math was like Go until brute-force compute won — now mathematicians should ask better questions
xwang_lk · x · 2026-10-08
Xwang reflects on AI's impact on mathematics: math's beauty resembled Go's until classical elegance was overwhelmed by brute-force computation. But math is a tool while Go is a game — players can still enjoy playing.
For mathematicians, he argues, the opportunity is bigger: use the new tools to ask better questions, open new scientific frontiers, and discover what we didn't even know to look for, not just solve predefined problems faster.
More from AGI Musings
- "Superhuman agents swap out bad software vendors in 15 minutes," says founder on SaaS churn — josh_bickett · 2026-10-08
- "Was that a real footstep in the hall?" — John Allard on this week's AI progress via C.S. Lewis — john__allard · 2026-10-08
- A sober take on AI mining centuries of math: real medium-term gains, no autonomous-math miracle — _onionesque · 2026-10-08
- Debate on X: math's purpose is more math — skepticism toward fully autonomous AI math infrastructure — _onionesque · 2026-10-08
- Unverified claim: OpenAI's secret model made progress on 4 of 7 Millennium Prize Problems — khademinori · 2026-10-08
- Mathematician warns AI hype could drive people away and sterilize the field — _onionesque · 2026-10-08