Is Math the Canary in the AI Coal Mine? (with Bryna Kra)

What happens when AI can produce a mathematical proof before any human understands it? And what does that mean for the rest of us?
Northwestern mathematician Bryna Kra, a former president of the American Mathematical Society, joins Jess Love to explore how AI is changing mathematical discovery. Generative AI has already brought about extraordinary breakthroughs, but they’re also unsettling the culture of collaboration, upending how young mathematicians learn, and raising a deceptively difficult question: Is solving a problem the same as understanding it?
Kra explains why some mathematicians are becoming wary of sharing unfinished ideas and how she cautiously makes space for AI in her own research. Despite the disruption she still enthusiastically encourages students to enter the field.
Life, Automated is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity, at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. The host is Jess Love, senior director. Distributed by KQED.
Senior Producer: Jesse Dukes
Assistant Producer: Tom Dixon
Music: Steven Jackson
Recording Help: George Christensen, Will Feeney
Promotion: Ananya Mallapragada, Lauren Ko
Editorial Assistance: Rob Mitchum, Laura Pavin