Mathematician on AI solving 400 open problems: from dismissal to optimism
kevinakwok · x · 2026-10-12
Mathematician Noah Gian traces his evolving reaction to AI in math: he dismissed the Unit Distance conjecture result as a combinatorial problem that just benefited from heavy computation; the Navier-Stokes result rattled him — a huge problem but one costing millions in compute, beyond ordinary mathematicians' budgets. When nearly 400 problems recently fell — including ones he had used for years as "North Stars" in grant proposals — he surprisingly felt relieved and optimistic, as uncertainty turned into a clear signal. Reposted as an optimistic take on human-AI math exploration.
Related event: AI Solves Nearly 400 Math Problems, Winning Over a Skeptical Mathematician(2 posts)→
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