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AI Can't Replace Mathematicians, Says Fields Medalist

2/14/2026

Summary

Story summary

A high school student asked Martin Hairer, a Fields Medal winner, whether artificial intelligence could render human mathematicians obsolete.
Hairer reassured the student that mathematics remains secure.
He noted that large-language models excel at solving artificial problems but have yet to generate genuinely new ideas.
Hairer described an ongoing experiment to assess AI's mathematical abilities through genuine test questions from unpublished research.

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Story summary

A high school student asked Martin Hairer, a Fields Medal winner, whether artificial intelligence could render human mathematicians obsolete.
Hairer reassured the student that mathematics remains secure.
He noted that large-language models excel at solving artificial problems but have yet to generate genuinely new ideas.
Hairer described an ongoing experiment to assess AI's mathematical abilities through genuine test questions from unpublished research.