npub1qq…652h5 on Nostr: RE: This really is getting exhausting. I created a mathstodon account in order to ...
RE:
https://mastodon.social/@tristanbuckmaster/117233413705701198This really is getting exhausting. I created a mathstodon account in order to keep up with my friends, colleagues and the wider mathematical community, now it seems like not a day can go by without my feed being filled by discussion of some new AI related debacle...
These AI generated proofs and papers make me so depressed, and I pity the people who have made generating and digesting them their profession. Reading and writing mathematics is already so hard! It can take a very long time to understand and digest even a well-presented piece of mathematics, but that process is something I cherish, and I cherish the effort and care of the authors who have explained it to me so thoughtfully.
But what is there to cherish about AI written mathematics? I feel a kind of malaise setting over my mind when I try to imagine the process of endless skimming and correcting, the following of loose threads and poorly thought out arguments, all produced in unimaginable quantities. Is this really how we want to spend our lives?
I cannot believe that this is the environment which I am stepping into as I begin my PhD studies this month. I try to take some solace in the fact that the fields I am interested in require so much careful architecture that they are yet impenetrable by AI, by I don't know. I long for us to slow down and breathe, and I long for a kind of romanticism of careful thought and deliberation that I see in our past.
Published at
2026-09-08 10:49:43 CESTEvent JSON
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