DeepMind exec: AI is commoditizing the formalizer, making top intuitionists more valuable than ever
docmilanfar · x · 2026-10-23
Ehsan Milanfar, VP at Google DeepMind, revisits a take he wrote over a year ago: the best intellectual collaborations happen between two types of people — the intuitionist and the formalizer. An intuitionist's idea can be so radical that no formalizer will engage, while a formal framework can be so complex that it lends itself to no intuition.
His updated judgment: barely over a year later, AI is already commoditizing the formalizer role — the work of turning ideas into rigorous formal expression is being rapidly absorbed by models — making the best intuitionists more valuable than ever.
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