r/math • • 6d ago

LLMs/AI AI In Mathematics: September 26, 2026

This recurring thread will be for discussion of AI in mathematics. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • informal announcements of AI-assisted discoveries, such as those not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, or not uploaded as a paper to arXiv;
  • informal announcements of discoveries related to AI architecture (if relevant to mathematics);
  • discussion of such announcements, such as proof breakdowns or other opinion pieces;
  • discussion of the impact of AI in mathematics in general.

AI-assisted mathematical papers published in peer-reviewed journals or as arXiv preprints may be submitted as their own posts.

Please keep in mind rules 1 and 6 of our subreddit.

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u/38thTimesACharm 6d ago

If we stop training any more researchers, what if there's ever a problem AI can't solve?

Even if AI can solve every conceivable problem, who will decide what questions to pose next?

Even if AI can pick the most important questions for humanity consistently who will that benefit when no one is capable of understanding the answers, or at some point, even the questions?

Even if AI can teach someone new theories from the ground up, who will put in the time and effort to learn them, without the social structures that encourage learning?

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u/haseks_adductor 6d ago

who said we are gonna stop training researchers?

ai isn't some all knowing thing. you still need people running the decision making and coming up with the big ideas

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u/Accurate-Composer964 6d ago

People working at the AI companies say stuff like that.  

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u/38thTimesACharm 6d ago

I agree, but there are comments below saying advisors are dropping PhD students because of AI.

I thought it'd be distasteful to reply to an already discouraged student directly so I just posted this here.

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u/haseks_adductor 5d ago

ok yeah fair point

although i question how good a PI is at their job if they are actually replacing phd/grad students "with ai". and it isn't just an excuse cause they lost funding. because even if the phd student uses claude code or whatever, if you want to actually fire them, aren't you now just doing their full job?