Regarding AI in math, progress has been made at a very fast pace. It has us all convinced that we're going to be made obsolete next month. Maybe that's true, but I have a couple of thoughts.
First, isn't automating as much math as possible more or less what we've been trying to do since the invention of the computer?
Second, what exactly is the point of companies like OpenAI solving all of these open problems? It seems to me like it's marketing. I find it hard to believe that they have any interest in these problems and are continually trying to drum up investor hype by showing everyone that their models are so smart that they can solve math problems.
Thirdly, who besides mathematicians (and apparently theoretical physicists) really care about these results? The other night a paper "leaked" regarding some proof about non-sofic groups. Apparently it's related, or at least can be applied to, dynamical systems. I just took (and passed!) my qual in nonlinear dynamics and have literally never heard of a non-sofic group before. I get the feeling that the only people who care are those who have intimate knowledge in this field.
I understand the knee-jerk reaction and pessimism of seeing the work you've devoted your life to being reduced to ones and zeros. At the same time however, I fail to see how the advent of GenAI has led to any bureaucratic problems that weren't already present in our field. Namely, one may ask "why would any mathematician be paid to do math now?", and my response is that it already *wasn't* obvious why we fund mathematicians. Why can't it be possible that we still pay people to understand math? The answer to that question is political.
LLMs are obviously going to do huge things for mathematics, but it somehow doesn't feel like they'll do anything other than destroy us. If the climate (both literal and political) were better, I believe we wouldn't be so scared of GenAI. If funding wasn't being cut, if the attitude towards intellectualism wasn't dwindling, and if we didn't hate each other, then we'd be fine. So I guess we'd better vote.