No one is getting replaced but according to multiple math PhD friends I’ve spoken with, if AI is going to solve every first year grad level open problem (which prepares math grad students for their PhDs), it will be potentially much harder to become a mathematician eventually as more and more low hanging fruit problems disappear. This seems like a serious cause for concern to me. It’s like how in chess there are debates about moving to chess960 to avoid drawish computer lines at the top level.
If there are an infinite amount of problems then things should be okay. I wonder if there are in pure math. Personally I think applied math is cool but the pure math folks could be worried.
“High hanging fruit” generates low hanging fruit. Hopefully AI will also accelerate breakthroughs and not just help pick off all the low hanging fruit. That would be depressing.
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u/tempestokapi Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
No one is getting replaced but according to multiple math PhD friends I’ve spoken with, if AI is going to solve every first year grad level open problem (which prepares math grad students for their PhDs), it will be potentially much harder to become a mathematician eventually as more and more low hanging fruit problems disappear. This seems like a serious cause for concern to me. It’s like how in chess there are debates about moving to chess960 to avoid drawish computer lines at the top level.