Mathematician pushes back on doom narratives: AI isn't bulldozing pure math
littmath · x · 2026-10-25
Responding to Steven Strogatz's latest piece on math in the age of AI, a mathematician rejects the apocalyptic framing that AI is "bulldozing" pure math. He argues AI is just a pile of PDFs sitting in a repository, that some mathematicians' pride is what got crushed, and that doom narratives themselves crush more hopes than AI does. Many mathematicians are actively engaging—reading, experimenting, writing papers, advancing the field. He concedes the profession must quickly adapt its practices, but as long as the pessimists don't convince the world to defund mathematics, there will still be jobs.
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