Returning from OpenAI's summit on the future of mathematics: 'The End of Mathematics' talk

Daniel Litt (University of Toronto) posted on 11 Aug 2026 that he was returning from a summit on the future of mathematics held at OpenAI. Sébastien Bubeck had asked him to talk about "the future we'd all like to avoid, where humans are mathematically disempowered", and Jacob Tsimerman also took part. The thread shares his slides; the essay version is "The End of Mathematics" (daniellitt.com, 11 Aug 2026). It describes a scenario in which AI becomes superhuman at maths but the field stalls. Output explodes with unknown quality, MathOverflow-style engagement collapses, models duplicate one another's solutions, incentives shift to token-cheap conjecture-solving, and mathematicians become "no longer connected to the underlying mathematics". Litt calls himself optimistic that the field will adapt. His follow-up essay "A beginning for mathematics" (13 Sep 2026) proposes reforms such as oral-defence PhDs and an emphasis on talks and seminars over papers. fxtwitter stats at fetch: ~334k views, 1,418 likes, 230 reposts, 944 bookmarks.

I'm currently returning to Toronto from a summit on the future of mathematics, at OpenAI. @SebastienBubeck asked me to talk a bit about the future we'd all like to avoid, where humans are mathematically disempowered. @Jacob_Tsimerman advised us to try to prioritize detail over correctness, and I have no doubt that I succeeded in deprioritizing correctness.

I tried to find a title that wasn't too bombastic:

Media: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPeLN4zbMAELi3I.jpg?name=orig

Related essays: https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2026/8/11/the-end-of-mathematics/ · https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2026/9/13/a-beginning-for-mathematics/