THE CRUNCH
A group led by Fields Medal winner Shing-Tung Yau has launched the Yau Laboratory Alliance for Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence in Beijing, uniting eight institutions with the aim of building a network of more than 1,000 researchers, the South China Morning Post reports. The alliance plans to develop specialised models, machine-verifiable proofs and transparent AI reasoning. Yau warned that China is falling behind the US in this area.
The contrast with Western attitudes is stark. Twenty-five Fields Medal winners, including Terence Tao and Peter Scholze, have expressed concern that AI-generated proofs erode mathematical understanding and leave researchers dependent on tools they cannot follow. Parts of the community are calling for a boycott of AI-generated proofs, and some mathematicians say they are shocked by the sheer volume of automated submissions.
Even among experts who use AI, there is no agreement on whether it produces genuine mathematical insight or simply brute-forces known methods, or whether that distinction matters at all.