Veteran programmer torches Terence Tao over AI proofs: "Stop blaming the chisel"
esrtweet · x · 2026-10-25
Mathematician Terence Tao recently complained that "AI is generating terrible proofs: great results, but no care for elegance, for who understands them, or for what comes next." A programmer with 50 years of experience pushed back hard in a viral thread.
His core arguments:
- Elegance and readability are the human's job, not the tool's — "it's not the chisel's job to make a sculpture look beautiful." Demanding taste from the model misplaces responsibility.
- Speaking from experience: he started on punched cards but has accepted he'll never hand-write significant code again — his role is now steering and quality-checking AI.
- He speculates that if AI actually had enough mathematical taste to produce elegant, accessible proofs, Tao would complain even harder, because he'd be fully obsolete.
The exchange captures a real split in the AI community: when AI output is correct but ugly, is the fault with the model or with how humans redefine their role?
Related event: 50-Year Programmer Fires Back at Terence Tao Over AI Proofs(2 posts)→
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