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1In less than four years, mathematician Steve Strogatz watched AI go from flailing at basic arithmetic to solving problems that baffle the world’s best mathematicians. In September of 2026, Open AI announced it had solved a Millennium Prize Problem, one of math’s highest achievements. In short, mathematics is right now on the cusp of a reckoning that may be coming for all of us. In this episode, Steve grapples with the idea that the window might be closing on humanity’s effort to unpuzzle, or learn, or understand the world around us.
Special thanks to Ravi Vakil, Alex Kontorovich, Bob Wright.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Maria Paz Gutierrez and Soren Wheeler
Produced by - Soren Wheeler and Maria Paz Gutierrez
Fact-checking by - Diane Kelly
and Edited by - Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
- On deep learning for cancer diagnosis and treatment (zpr.io), by Regina Barzilay (MIT Professor of AI & Health)
Articles -
- Mathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why (zpr.io), by Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend
- OpenAI Releases Findings on 377 Math Problems, Further Roiling Field (zpr.io), by Kenneth Chang and Siobhan Roberts
Books -
- Big Math: The Hidden Codes that rule our World (zpr.io), by Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend
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