French math PhD students despair: a €20 ChatGPT could solve their thesis problems
FlorianGallwitz · x · 2026-10-18
A French media interview captures the psychological toll of AI on early-career math researchers. Applied math PhD candidate Alexia Grenouillat notes the theoretical math community once assumed it would be the last field hit by AI — it turned out to be among the first.
One PhD student says a €20/month ChatGPT subscription could likely solve the problem she has worked on for two years; her friends resolved theirs within a week using AI, and she deliberately avoids looking. A postdoc at Université Paris-Cité now spends most of his time prompting ChatGPT and meets his advisor twice a week to compare what their AIs found. He's demoralized, fearing he specialized deeply in something rapidly losing value. The piece documents collective anxiety among young researchers over AI hollowing out their craft.
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