"How is AI changing math?" with Math Professor Jonathan Wise
Show notes
00:00 Meet Jonathan Wise — theoretical mathematician and professor at CU Boulder
01:35 Teaching mathematics with AI and the Lean proof assistant
04:36 The AI math breakthroughs that changed the conversation
07:25 Is AI discovering mathematics — or just grinding through possibilities?
11:34 Can AI develop mathematical intuition and “taste”?
15:23 Can AI combine ideas across completely different fields of math?
17:40 How a working mathematician actually uses AI today
22:22 AI is already extremely useful for checking and proofreading proofs
24:41 What is mathematics for: human understanding or simply proving what’s true?
29:33 What happens when AI starts surpassing mathematicians?
34:15 Has AI actually invented genuinely new mathematical ideas yet?
36:30 The excitement — and existential dread — spreading through mathematics
40:12 AI attribution, citations, and using mathematicians’ ideas without credit
43:22 MathOverflow is declining as mathematicians increasingly ask AI instead of humans
45:31 Why AI is also making mathematics unusually fun right now
Each week, join Chris Slowe (founding engineer, former CTO, and now Senior Technical Fellow @ Reddit), Marty Weiner (founding engineer at Pinterest, former CTO at Reddit, and co-founder at VerifyYou), and Zach Weinersmith (creator of SMBC Comics and co-author of A City on Mars and Soonish) as we delve into the latest in AI and tech.