# Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend's new book examines math in the age of AI

> Original title: What happens to mathematics when AI becomes an oracle?

- Source: Ars Technica · AI
- Published: 2026-11-10T20:30:01.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/wccgx17dkt7vwjyi679nxe1u4
- Original: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/11/what-happens-to-mathematics-when-ai-becames-an-oracle/

## Summary

Applied mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend have published Big Math: The Hidden Codes That Run Our World, which examines how large language models, AI chatbots and quantum computing are outpacing the computers and people who built them. The book asks what that means for mathematics and how people might adapt. Strogatz is known for co-authoring a 1998 paper with Duncan Watts on the collective dynamics of small-world networks.