# Terence Tao criticizes automated AI proof generation as damaging to mathematics

> Original title: Terence Tao has a problem with how AI is doing math, and it has nothing to do with whether the proofs are correct. 😀

- Source: Rohan Paul
- Published: 2026-11-01T13:16:39.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/lmbcop6k8thvxbde73xzr0a3p
- Original: https://x.com/rohanpaul_ai/status/2116882110363697344

## Summary

Terence Tao says AI-driven automated proofs of hard problems, such as Navier-Stokes, leave the field in disarray and harm its future development. He calls this approach irresponsible strip mining, which achieves immediate goals at the cost of the field's long-term progress. The remarks come from a New Scientist video interview.

## Post

Terence Tao has a problem with how AI is doing math, and it has nothing to do with whether the proofs are correct. 😀

Mathematicians wanted AI as a calculator, not a competitor.

"So, there was quite a lot of activity around Navier-Stokes, and now it’s all kind of in disarray. Eventually, we will recover. I think eventually we will understand that proof, and eventually people will come back into the field, but the way it was done was very suboptimal. 

I think there’s a responsible way to solve problems that develops a field, and then there’s this irresponsible way, which is this emerging, sort of automated strip mining of these problems, where you get your immediate goal but at the cost of damaging the future development of the field."

- Terence Tao

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Full video on "New Scientist" YouTube channel, (link in comment)

[Video](https://badinfluence.news/api/img-proxy?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Famplify_video_thumb%2F2116881312317620225%2Fimg%2F1mSLYJmgfCJRyway.jpg&mode=thumb&exp=1793836800&sig=ac3bf7c6397d2df1)