The speed of artificial intelligence (AI) development has changed the pace of life worldwide. After AI attracted the attention of software developers and researchers, concerns about AI have now reached young mathematicians globally. Many young specialists are forced to question whether they should continue working in this complex field.
A recent and highly interesting study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presented data that could shock any academic specialist. These findings explain why young mathematicians live in the shadow of AI today.
Researchers from MIT—Anna Brandenberger, Hanna Mülarzik, and Dora Wooderff—surveyed graduates of mathematics departments and postdocs to gauge their attitude toward the growing influence of AI in mathematics. The study involved 268 young mathematicians from approximately sixty institutions across five countries, including India. Among those surveyed were about 85 percent graduates and about 15 percent postdocs, but the responses received were far from encouraging.
The study's statistics show that young researchers are experiencing disillusionment in the academic environment due to AI. Approximately 70 percent of the surveyed young mathematicians stated that the probability of continuing in academic mathematics for them has significantly decreased. Conversely, only 9 percent believe that their chances of remaining in this field have increased.
Around 76.3 percent believe that obtaining a permanent teaching or research position at a university (the so-called 'tenure track' position) will become extremely difficult in the future due to AI. Furthermore, the influence of AI is affecting not only work but also the morale of researchers. About 76.5 percent of young mathematicians noted a decrease in their desire to tackle complex mathematical problems after the advent of AI.
Interestingly, these same individuals stated that if AI solves a problem they have been working on for months or years, they will feel no joy. Many researchers fear that AI will solve the puzzle they have worked on all night, making them feel less significant. Because of this fear, some researchers have become reluctant to share their unfinished work.
Sixty-nine percent of the youth deeply fear that research funding in the future will be taken away from universities and transferred directly to private AI companies. Moreover, 59 percent of researchers worry whether mathematics will remain an interesting and meaningful career for them over the next decade.
However, many of these researchers themselves use AI in their daily work, such as searching for scientific articles, editing texts, or checking mathematical errors. Nevertheless, 54.8 percent openly admitted that they strongly dislike using AI for their research.
This survey was conducted at a time when tension was brewing in the global mathematical community due to AI-assisted research. In September of the same year, OpenAI announced that one of its AI models had found a solution to the Newell-Stokes problem. This well-known problem related to fluid dynamics had been a headache for mathematicians for a whole century.
According to the company, its system found this solution by launching about 10,000 AI agents over 88 hours. Following this announcement, dissatisfaction spread among mathematicians worldwide. Two mathematicians from New York University, who were working on this problem, expressed concern about whether OpenAI had used their unpublished research. Although OpenAI categorically denies this, even the 'Clay Mathematics Institute,' which awards a $1 million prize for solving this problem, has not recognized the solution claimed by OpenAI.
