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AI is the catalyst for a fundamental shift in mathematics toward 'big mathematics': large-scale, decentralized collaborations between humans and machines, where complex tasks are diced and sliced, humans claim the creative parts, and AI does the lion's share of the technical grunt work.

Terence Tao, neither dismissive of AI nor fearful of it, sees it as the catalyst for 'big mathematics' — a future of large-scale, decentralized human-machine collaboration in which humans take the creative parts and AI does most of the technical grunt work. ✦ AI generated

Article author (via Hacker News) · Simon Willison's Weblog · 2026-08-01 · original ↗

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Unlike some of his peers, Tao is neither dismissive of AI nor fearful. Instead, he sees it as the catalyst for a fundamental shift in the discipline—a transition toward what he calls "big mathematics." He envisions a future of large-scale, decentralized collaborations between humans and machines, where complex mathematical tasks can be diced and sliced, with humans claiming the creative parts and AI doing the lion's share of the technical grunt work.

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✳ big mathematics ✳ IEEE Spectrum ◉ Terence Tao

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