Mathematician Lior Pachter publicly rebukes Terence Tao's view of pure vs applied math
lpachter · x · 2026-10-11
UCLA professor Lior Pachter publicly disagreed with Terence Tao's view of mathematics, laid out in a Caltech talk the previous day. Tao's slide appeared to treat applied math problems as disjoint from pure math problems.
Pachter called this "not a minor matter" and dismissed the framing as not "a more accurate model" but "embarrassing." The public spat between top mathematicians is worth tracking for its implications on how they view AI-assisted mathematics.
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