Things Robert Hart Has Said on Podcasts

“What do you do if you then obliterate an entire generation of postdocs and PhD students because you solve their problems?” — Robert Hart, The Vergecast

Hart said mathematicians told him of colleagues whose research programs had blown up overnight after a single drop of AI-solved problems. His question is whether the profession survives long enough to start valuing the work beyond the final result.

The Vergecast · 2026-10-20 Permalink → Listen →

The Vergecast Around 27:35 into the episode

Robert Hart

…they want, they need the mathematicians. And I think if they're, I don't think they're even asking by dropping it on them, they're demanding or presuming, even worse. I don't think it's then unreasonable to say, could you at least, even if it's not playing fair, not playing what feels underhanded.

David Pierce

…way that that stuff can work can be applied to all of these other industries. There's something here that feels like it could work. And I spend a lot of time vacillating between optimistic that we will get there and completely nihilist about it. What do you hear from the mathematicians right now?

Robert Hart

…survive that long, long enough, given the speed of this, to do that? Or does it change its value system in crediting more than just the end result in time to recognize the value of people doing all that other stuff? And that's, I think, the question here is that because it's happening so quickly and it's being done with seemingly such little care, that those systems in place, like, well, what do you do if you then obliterate an entire generation of postdocs and PhD students because you solve their problems? Yeah. What happens after that? Like, there's then both a need for them and an absence of trained mathematicians. But some people, I suppose, were also very excited about what all this shows. And in saying that, well, one is that a lot of what's happened isn't necessarily that creative opening up new area kind of stuff. So there's either excitement that maybe AI could do that, or that still…

David Pierce

you at like two o'clock in the morning just getting a text that's like 8,000 words of equation that is just completely unreadable. And they're like, look what I've. Discovered it. You're like, this means nothing.

Robert Hart

I mean, with the time difference as well, that is about the time it would come through. And I also didn't know some notation could go via text, but it can. And it's fascinating though. And so it's hugely accelerating research. People are already. I was texting a few people today ahead of recording…

David Pierce

Yeah.

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“It's gone from problems no one really cared about or noticed… to ones that, oh, some very accomplished mathematicians have spent their entire careers trying and failing to do this. And they did it in like three days.” — Robert Hart, The Vergecast

Verge reporter Robert Hart on how AI lab models have been working through lists of open problems in mathematics over the past few months. He added that half the time the labs can't tell whether a result works and rely on mathematicians to check.

The Vergecast · 2026-10-20 Permalink → Listen →

The Vergecast Around 07:21 into the episode

Robert Hart

…the kind of pinnacle of knowledge. And it's, I think, easy for them to try and sort of show off in that area. And yeah, and it's always been quite terrible. And then the last few months, very good, it seems. And like, and by very good, kind of on par with the best human mathematicians. So a little

David Pierce

bit like the coding phenomenon kind of nine months ago, that all of a sudden it went from a thing computers can do that it seems like AI might someday be able to do, but isn't quite there yet to all of a sudden overnight, oh my God, this actually works.

Robert Hart

Yeah. And I mean, well, not that half the time you can even tell it works. They sort of rely on the mathematicians for that. But yeah, basically, it's like there's all these problems that are kind of labeled as open problems in the field and they've just kind of been mowing through them. And it's gone from kind of problems no one really cared about or noticed, or oh, I've maybe heard of that here or there, to ones that, oh, some very accomplished mathematicians have spent their entire careers trying and failing to do this. And they did it in like three days. So yeah, it's a very quick, quick change.

David Pierce

Yeah. And were the people steeped in this on the mathematics side surprised by this? Like, obviously, this has been a surprise to those of us who are not paying close attention, but there's an industry of people who spend their days and nights steeped in this stuff at universities all over the…

Robert Hart

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that perhaps depends on where in mathematics you look for. It's kind of a field that varies between you've got some who are very much like, I use my chalkboard and my chalk. And that is how I work through to they're using these types of tools. And so they're quite…

David Pierce

Interesting. Well, and yeah, walk me through the figuring out what it means. Cause I think when you say this is a human story, I think this is a lot of what we're talking about, right? There is this thing that happens. And I think a lot of people are either dealing with the reality of this already…

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