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Mathematical Beauty, Truth and Proof in the Age of AI | Quanta Magazine

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Since the start of the 20th century, the heart of mathematics has been the proof — a rigorous, logical argument for whether a given statement is true or false. Mathematicians’ careers are measured by what kinds of theorems they can prove, and how many. They spend the bulk of their time coming up with fresh insights to make a proof work, then translating those intuitions into step-by-step deductions, fitting different lines of reasoning together like puzzle pieces. The best proofs are works of art. They’re not just rigorous; they’re elegant, creative and beautiful. This makes them feel like a distinctly human activity — our way of making sense of the world, of sharpening our minds, of testing the limits of thought itself. But proofs are also inherently rational. And so it was only natural that when researchers started developing artificial intelligence in the mid-1950s, they hoped to automate theorem proving: to design computer programs capable of generating proofs of their own. They ha

Mathematical Beauty, Truth and Proof in the Age of AI | Quanta Magazine Home Mathematical Beauty, Truth and Proof in the Age of AI Read Later Share Copied! Comments Read Later Read Later Previous: Science in the Age of AI Why Language Models Are So Hard To Understand Next: Science in the Age of AI What Happens When AI Starts To Ask the Questions? SERIES foundations of mathematics Mathematical Beauty, Truth and Proof in the Age of AI By Jordana Cepelewicz April 30, 2025 Mathematicians have started to prepare for a profound shift in what it means to do math. Read Later Sally Caulwell for Quanta

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