New Yorker: AI Is Solving Decades-Old Math Problems, With Terence Tao as Guide
stevenstrogatz · x · 2026-11-02
A New Yorker long-read, "The Year Math Changed Forever," chronicles how AI is cracking math problems that stumped the field for decades, with mathematicians looking to Terence Tao for guidance on their altered world.
- Tao, after OpenAI announced solutions to yet another problem, is quoted calling it "the strangest week ever in my life."
- The piece frames the shift against Paul Erdős's legacy — nearly 1,500 papers and roughly 1,000 open problems left at his death — contrasting traditional mathematical culture with the AI-driven paradigm change.
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