Kevin Hartnett

I think that's just a weird thing to reckon with.

I think it's also this belief that math and the way the community has developed, the norms around it,

has produced a lot of basic discoveries that are both practically important, like kind of math fuels our understanding of the universe.

It's important in engineering.

It's important in kind of all sorts of technology.

So there's a concern that if you kind of squeeze it off in certain ways that we will lose those downstream benefits.

And I think...

The more serious point is this belief that kind of math is just a quintessentially human endeavor.

It's like the pinnacle of human thought.

It's like writing a sonata.

It's like writing a novel.

And that, I don't know, I think we don't feel as threatened in those areas by AI because we kind of understand that like the human behind the creation is such an important thing.

I guess I was not so sure of that statement.

I think that people would not be as interested in a novel written by AI.

That is true.

Anyway, so if a proof is not, if there's no human kind of behind it who kind of sat and wrestled with it, then maybe we lose some kind of very essentially human endeavor.

That is the worry.

Yeah, this idea, is math invented or discovered, right?

It's kind of a never-ending debate.

10 years ago, a little more than 10 years ago, Terry Tao won a big prize and he was asked that question.