Kevin Hartnett on Lean, AlphaProof and what gets verified when no human can read the proof

Machine Learning Street Talk · youtube · 2026-10-26

A 95-minute Machine Learning Street Talk documentary with Kevin Hartnett, author of The Proof in the Code, tracing formalized mathematics from Hales's computer-heavy Kepler conjecture proof (which Annals of Mathematics couldn't verify) through Lean's evolution — de Moura's trusted kernel, the foundations dispute, Mathlib, Scholze's Liquid Tensor challenge, Tao's Equational Theories project — to AI: AlphaProof, autoformalisation, and the "formalisation gap" between what mathematicians mean and what a checker certifies. A proof is not understanding.

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