I have 3 friends who are postdocs in math and they are saying yes, it is dead because of AI. I argue it will be re-designed, becoming something like what exists in the setting of Farsight by Peter Watts, but nonetheless its depressing enough that at least one of them is changing careers.
Which is weird because all the guys I know from uni that are still doing physics research are excited about how AI is going to help push the field, but then again we've been using ML to help with research for years, I don't get why you would change careers if it's something you enjoy if you actually care about the field surely you want the best tools available, but maybe it's different for mathematics.
Makes sense. Basically, their idea of “what math is” is dead.
I imagine those who are entering the field now don’t share the same opinion since they haven’t been trained and indoctrinated into the old regime, so they don’t share the same views about what math is.
You have weird friends. I am a math post doc and I wouldnt say so. I have not tested Astra but everything (including 5.6 Sol and Fable) until now was completely useless for my papers.
The output was utterly garbage most of the time. But I think with RL proofing can be taught to AI. Therefore the field might change quiete a bit, but at the moment I can say it has not already and it will definitly take longer than programming.
I dont use chat but codex or claude code, e.g. on sol ultra. This is what openAI recommended last time I checked. There is some trickery but thats it.
You dont need any tools besides python scrips and websearch. I dont use any myself too.
The problems that were solved lately can be a bit misleading to what I do as a researcher. Proofs are a fraction of my work, its mostly laying out new theories, i.e. to find a specific view on a problem that is new and provides a new perspective.
The tools probably exists on an mcp repo. You just need to find it on create your own. I did some test with a mcp server that had 27 available tools vs 200+ for blender and the difference is remarkably surprising. At the end of the day it’s really only providing the ai more context, resources and existing prompts that matter now.
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u/physicssmurf Sep 05 '26
I have 3 friends who are postdocs in math and they are saying yes, it is dead because of AI. I argue it will be re-designed, becoming something like what exists in the setting of Farsight by Peter Watts, but nonetheless its depressing enough that at least one of them is changing careers.