Tao: open problems have become a non-renewable resource
Terence Tao @tao@mathstodon.xyz · other · 2026-09-03 · ★★★★ · archived
Tao's influential threads arguing that AI labs racing to 'solve' famous problems use up a non-renewable resource, with Navier–Stokes as the example. They set the terms of the September 2026 debate.
Summary
A series of Mathstodon threads by Tao, 3–8 Sep 2026. In the first (3 Sep, this URL) he argues that solving a problem has irreversible costs, like spoilers or benchmark contamination. Open problems posed before the AI era have become like "pre-atomic steel", a non-renewable resource. A companion thread the same day (mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117207849921390904) warns that a mostly AI-generated solution to Navier–Stokes/Euler regularity could "contaminate" the problem as a source of further progress. On 5 Sep he used the bounded prime gaps problem to illustrate the opportunity cost (117219548485446992). He also proposed that AI companies compete to be first to announce a new mathematical insight rather than a solution (117221032761877425). On 8 Sep he compared the situation to a water shortage beside an ocean (117237320796901560). The threads came just before OpenAI's Navier–Stokes announcement and the Fields Medallists' declaration, and Fortune cited them. Verified via the Mastodon API.
Archived text
Page title: Terence Tao: "It seems intuitive that a solved problem is unque…" - Mathstodon
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Metadata archived 2026-09-29; see Summary for content.
Related events
- OpenAI claims a Millennium Prize problem: 10,000 AI agents prove forced Navier–Stokes blow-up; priority dispute erupts 2026-09-08
- Fields Medallists' open letter 'A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics' criticises labs' race for famous problems 2026-09-11
- GPT-6 Astra lowers the bounded prime gaps record from 246 to 186 2026-08-30
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