Maths enters its AI era

数学进入 AI 时代

Babbage from The Economist

2026-05-14

47 分钟
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Not long ago, AI models struggled with basic arithmetic. Now, they're solving complex mathematical conjectures. But researchers want to go further. They think AI could help them organise the mathematical literature into a common language—thereby finding connections between hitherto-disparate fields and, perhaps, even making completely new discoveries in one of the most fundamental areas of human inquiry. Guests and hosts: Anjani Trivedi, The Economist's global business correspondentTerence Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)Patrick Shafto of America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)Maryna Viazovska of L'École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Alok Jha, The Economist's science and technology editor  Topics covered: MathematicsLarge language modelsAutoformalisation Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
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  • This episode of Babbage is supported by IDA Ireland.

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  • The fact that you can now do math at scale, that's the game changer.

  • We're getting close to this place where things are really going to shift.

  • It's at least as impactful as the interaction of the internet.

  • There's a profound transformation underway in the world of mathematics.

  • We used to have human computers before, and then calculators came,

  • and computers came, and we were able to do these large calculations.

  • Now you have this ability to reason about very complex things.

  • Within one or two years.

  • AI will just be a tool that if you do n't use it as a mathematician,

  • you 're putting yourself at a disadvantage for no reason at all, really.

  • At this point, you're thinking, AI changing the nature of everything in a given field?

  • It doesn't sound revolutionary anymore.

  • But just remember that only a few years ago, large language models were famously awful at arithmetic.

  • As AI models have got better, though, so too have their problem-solving, reasoning and mathematical skills.

  • I do really hope that if it might take us 100 years to solve Millennium Prize problems,

  • maybe when AI and human combine together, we can shorten the times.