What It Means to Be a Mathematician When AI Does the Math

The article reflects on the changing nature of mathematical work in the age of AI. The author, a former applied mathematics Ph.D. student, recalls his own struggles and now understands the value of the long journey toward understanding, a feeling cherished by pure mathematicians. Recent AI achievements, such as Google DeepMind's Aletheia producing publishable research and OpenAI's system disproving a conjecture in combinatorial geometry, suggest AI can handle tasks previously considered uniquely human. Proof assistants like Isabelle, Lean, and Rocq, combined with LLMs, are automating formalization. At the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, discussions centered on AI's potential to replace mathematicians, with some like Yang-Hui He envisioning humans as 'priests to oracles,' while others, including Fields Medalist Akshay Venkatesh and Maia Fraser, emphasize the human-centric value of understanding and the beauty of collective intelligence. Terence Tao advocates for collaborative approaches where humans and AI work together.