4h ago

Economist Noah Smith questions downsides of AI discovering all possible mathematics, stating the field does not exist to employ international math olympiad gold medalists

Susan Zhang counters that it would enable superhuman skill transfer to economic tasks

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Original post
OPSusan Zhang#58Susan Zhang@SUCHENZANG

@Noahpinion unlike humans who fail to transfer math skills to economically viable skills mathy-agi will have superhuman transfer skills and come for all white collar digital work!

10:18 PM · May 20, 2026 View on X
REPLYStanislav Fort#143Stanislav Fort@STANISLAVFORT

The downside is this: in solving problems, humans develop universally useful tools due to their limited bandwidth. The worry is that if we solve math by parallel-brute-forcing problems, we won't develop such tools. And these tools are what people often consider understanding and value

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼@Noahpinion

What's the downside of AI discovering all the math that can possibly be discovered? Math doesn't exist as a jobs program for IMO gold medalists.

5:02 AM · May 21, 2026 · 24.4K Views
7:15 AM · May 21, 2026 · 231 Views
REPLYFrançois Fleuret#331François Fleuret@FRANCOISFLEURET

@Noahpinion Us feeling like crap?

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼@Noahpinion

What's the downside of AI discovering all the math that can possibly be discovered? Math doesn't exist as a jobs program for IMO gold medalists.

5:02 AM · May 21, 2026 · 24.4K Views
5:46 AM · May 21, 2026 · 259 Views
Economist Noah Smith questions downsides of AI discovering all possible mathematics, stating the field does not exist to employ international math olympiad gold medalists · Digg