How AI does, and does not, change the way I do math
Rachel Webb (guest post on Terence Tao's blog) · blog · 2026-09-29 · ★★ · archived
A mathematician's view, published on Terence Tao's widely read blog, of what LLMs change in research practice during the 2026 wave of AI-assisted proofs.
Summary
Guest post by Rachel Webb (Tao's note: the post "was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI"). She argues AI changes how mathematicians work but not why. LLMs give instant access to standard lemmas and speed up execution, like "taking the interstate instead of the side roads". What counts as "interesting" mathematics, and the humanistic reasons for doing it (personal enjoyment, community), stay the same. She resolves to use AI "only in ways that make math research more enjoyable".
Archived text
Page title: How AI does, and does not, change the way I do math
Page description: [This is a guest post by Rachel Webb. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] The way I do math experienced a great upheaval once before,…
Metadata archived 2026-09-30; see Summary for content.
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