AI Sparks "Spiritual Crisis" in Mathematics
The growing ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate new mathematical proofs (theorems) has sparked a deep philosophical debate in the long-established scientific discipline. AI systems, which have begun to solve long-unsolved problems like the "Jacobian conjecture," leave mathematicians facing the danger of becoming mere "spectators" in their own field.
According to one of the world's most famous mathematicians, Fields Medal winner Terence Tao, AI is shifting mathematics from a state of "proof scarcity" to "proof abundance." This situation is dragging mathematicians into a precarious position, much like writers and artists: The world is being flooded with AI-generated versions of outputs that humans normally produce through great effort, which devalues the final product.
Benjamin Collas, a mathematics researcher at Kyoto University, points out that published papers and proofs are actually just a "residue," and that the real product is the "increase in humanity's collective understanding." According to Collas, AI has called the bluff of academia's "publish or perish" culture. While it only takes a few hours for an AI to generate a new proof, integrating and absorbing these new results into human knowledge takes years. Experts warn that the real danger is not AI replacing mathematicians, but rather universities ceasing to fund this "slow and human process of understanding."