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Boosted by dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase"):
tao@mathstodon.xyz ("Terence Tao") wrote:
As Hugo Duminil-Copin wrote recently at https://proofsandprompts.com/2026/08/30/care-for-a-little-more-ai/ , the indiscriminate automated strip-mining of open problems for solutions may destroy the ecosystem from which the next generation of mathematical techniques, problems, and practitioners would have developed, similarly to how using excavators to dig out treasures from an archeological site destroys the rich historical context and data that gives such treasures so much of their meaning and value.
It may become necessary to declare certain classes of mathematical problems off-limits to automated solvers, in order to preserve their broader value to the mathematical ecosystem (for instance, through the training of future mathematicians). Admittedly this can be hard to enforce when such tools are both powerful and widely available. But then again, society has been somewhat successful at using social pressure to discourage, say, widespread spoiling of upcoming movies. Perhaps it can become viable to maintain such protected mathematical sites if one simultaneously opens up other classes of problems as suitable for directing this new AI capability towards. (3/3)