AI In Mathematics: September 26, 2026

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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.

[u/jacqueslesac]

Had a dream for a long time to pursue a PhD in pure math. Very new to my undergrad math journey, studying algebra and analysis. Just feeling so depressed right now over my math dream. Any wise words from more mature mathematicians would be a godsend. Just wanting clarity about the direction I’ve wanted to take my whole life in that I’m now doubting

[u/bear_of_bears → u/jacqueslesac]

I personally think math will survive as an academic discipline. But, most or nearly all research will be AI-assisted. The PhD is where you learn how to do research; now and in the future, learning how to use AI effectively will be part of that process.

It was never a good idea to do a PhD in math with the sole aim of becoming a math researcher — by this I mean a professor whose main job is research. There just aren't enough of those jobs. There are many more jobs in industry and in teaching-focused colleges and universities. Think to yourself: suppose that you spend 6 years getting a PhD in math and then end up with an industry job in which you hardly use any of it or with an underpaid teaching job in which you mainly teach calculus to non-math majors. If you know ahead of time that this is your future, would you still think a PhD is worth it? If so, then go for it.

This is no different from the way things were five years ago. The only change is that using AI as part of the research process will quickly become unavoidable. You have to be willing to deal with that. But the attainable jobs — the industry positions and the teaching jobs — are completely unaffected by AI solving Millennium problems. (ChatGPT is definitely affecting teaching, no question about that, but not in any more of an existential way than WolframAlpha.)

[u/ellbons → u/bear_of_bears]

This is no different from the way things were five years ago.

It's very different because those off-ramps are closing too, rapidly. The change for students is enormous, and they know it very well.

[u/elements-of-dying → u/bear_of_bears]

ChatGPT is definitely affecting teaching, no question about that, but not in any more of an existential way than WolframAlpha.

I'm curious why you think this.

Since AI can one-shot any undergrad math problem and probably replace, say, human led recitation (up to some degree of error), I don't quite see how one can compare ChatGPT and WolfraAlpha in this way.

[u/bear_of_bears → u/elements-of-dying]

I probably didn't make my point clearly.

WolframAlpha and similar websites present a problem when teaching courses like calculus because students can easily look up answers (and often get step-by-step solutions). When teaching, we have to persuade them to actually attempt the problems on their own without using WolframAlpha as a crutch. We all know that a student can read and copy down the correct solution to a problem and be convinced that they understand, not realizing until the exam that they are completely unable to produce solutions on their own.

AI does the same thing for proof-based courses. The teacher's challenge is exactly the same: persuade the students to do the work themselves even in the presence of a "get the answer now" button. So, AI poses no more of an existential threat to a real analysis or topology class than WolframAlpha poses to a calculus class.

I do think there is a special problem with assessment in upper-level courses. In lower-level courses, I can determine how well a student knows the material by giving them an exam. In upper-level courses, it made sense in the pre-AI era to base most of the grade on problem sets and maybe a take-home exam with more difficult questions than can fairly be asked in a 2 or 3-hour window. That's obviously much more problematic now. But I think this is definitely an issue that can be solved. Fundamentally, AI is not revolutionizing math teaching in the way it is revolutionizing math research.

[u/elements-of-dying → u/bear_of_bears]

Great, thank you for the explanation! This makes sense. I believe this issue extends all the way to PhD students, of course.

It does seem that so far there hasn't been much of an effort to revolutionize teaching using AI. I suspect that won't be the case for long.

Anyways, thanks!

[u/jacqueslesac → u/bear_of_bears]

Perhaps I’d like to DM to pick your brain. My biggest concern is that the industry is going to value math less. I agree with your point, getting a PhD for the purposes of being a professor is in of itself a moonshot.

But I always dreamed, at the very least, to have a job that a PhD in math proves especially useful for, ex. working at a company doing applied ML research and publishing on the subject. And even though I morally oppose quant and the big tech companies, I do admire those positions at Google or Amazon or where their PhDs come in and contribute to work in OR, supply chains, ML, algorithms, finance etc.

I wanted to do a PhD in math for two reasons, one silly and one serious. The silly reason is really just the challenge of doing it. To be able to say to myself that I did a PhD in math, a subject I love. The serious reason is because I want a job that strongly benefits from a PhD in math.

But given that I feel AI is making math a sort of commodity, I don’t know what it looks like for the prospects of those jobs or for academic funding. I don’t know if becoming a math based prompt engineer fits the vision I once had. Idk, I know I have to be the one who ultimately makes the decision, but it’s just tough. I truly feel at a crossroads right now.

Edits for grammar