Math professors on AI and math's future: why mathematicians won't disappear
burny_tech · x · 2026-10-21
UVA's Thomas Koberda and Rutgers' Alex Kontorovich publish a dialogue (also on arXiv) addressing PhD students hearing that "math is solved." They argue in three stages: math will persist as a human profession; given that expertise remains valuable, what hiring looks for; and what PhD training should target. They propose a "Solved Axiom" (any problem human+AI can solve, AI alone can solve), invoke the centaur-chess precedent, and contend that even granting the axiom, expert human mathematicians will remain in demand.
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