Is AI about to break mathematics?

Renowned mathematician Terence Tao thinks AI is pushing math toward a major turning point. He compares this shift to the foundational crises of the early 20th century. The issue is not whether math works, but how we decide what counts as progress.

AI tools can now generate proofs that are impossible for humans to verify or explain. Tao argues that if a person cannot understand a proof, it should not be accepted as complete. This creates a difficult problem for the academic community.

We must now decide how to value human effort in a world where computers do the heavy lifting. The goal is to keep math a human endeavor while using technology to solve harder problems. If we lose the ability to explain our work, we might lose the core of what mathematics truly is.