AI is approaching superhuman mathematical ability, and the world's top mathematicians worry that the value of human research will be weakened

Comparing news, about 40 of the world's top mathematicians recently held a meeting at the San Francisco OpenAI office to discuss a controversial question: when artificial intelligence surpasses humans in mathematical research, what role will mathematicians play in the future.

Daniel Litt, a professor at the University of Toronto, proposed extreme ideas at the conference. In the future, there may be a situation where high-quality mathematical research will disappear and human mathematical expertise will gradually be lost. He said that although this outcome is not the most likely, the math community must adapt to the changes brought about by AI as soon as possible.

Mathematics is considered to be one of the first subjects to be impacted by AI's scientific research capabilities. Recently, OpenAI announced 10 mathematical and computer science achievements generated or assisted by AI, covering a number of research fields that usually require years of training to master.

OpenAI mathematician and Fields Medal winner Jacob Tsimerman said AI could soon reach a level that steadily surpasses humans in the field of mathematical research. He recently announced that he will join OpenAI to participate in AI security-related work.

In recent years, AI has begun to produce some groundbreaking mathematical results. In May of this year, an OpenAI model that had not been publicly released proposed an example of refuting unit distance conjectures. The results were considered by some mathematicians to have reached a level where they can be published. At the same time, Anthropic researchers also used Claude to complete research on high-dimensional mathematical problems.

However, the mathematical community is still divided over AI replacing human researchers. Some experts believe that AI can generate proofs, but it doesn't necessarily really understand mathematical concepts. Harvard mathematician Melanie Matchett Wood points out that it is still difficult for top AI models to accurately explain the key difficulties in the proof.

Northwestern University mathematics professor Bryna Kra said that math isn't just about getting answers; it's more about understanding results. A proof that isn't understood doesn't really become part of the mathematical literature.

At the same time, some researchers believe AI may be a tool for mathematicians rather than a replacement. OpenAI research scientist Sébastien Bubeck said that future mathematics may be similar to software engineering, where AI helps a large number of researchers collaborate to solve complex problems; it may also be similar to physics, driving larger scientific exploration through AI models.

As AI continues to make breakthroughs in scientific research, mathematicians are facing a new era of proposition: whether future mathematical research will be co-created by humans and AI, or whether it will gradually become machine-led.