What changed
Fields Medalist Laurent Lafforgue said on October 28 at Fudan University’s 17th Pujiang Science Masters Forum in Shanghai that AI will not make mathematics disappear, but may change how mathematicians write and conduct research. He argued that traditional learning still matters: students should write careful, clear proofs and practise calculations, even as AI becomes a new way to ask questions.
Why it matters
Lafforgue’s most useful point is that AI may alter the habits around mathematics before it alters mathematics itself. He said AI can give Chinese students confidence to ask difficult questions, addressing a hesitation he has observed among students who are otherwise diligent, well prepared and rigorous.
That is a modest but important shift. A student who uses AI to formulate a question may still need the discipline to test the answer, write the proof and understand the calculation. The machine can open the door; it cannot replace the work required to know whether the argument stands.
Lafforgue also pushed back against the demand that mathematics prove its usefulness immediately. He cited finite-field theory, developed by French mathematician Évariste Galois, which was viewed as highly abstract for about 150 years before becoming part of the foundations of WiFi communications. The lesson is clear: today’s apparently useless theory may become tomorrow’s infrastructure.
Whether AI produces a genuinely new mathematical paradigm remains uncertain. But Lafforgue’s broader warning is already practical: as machines become better at generating mathematical text, the value of literary and philosophical judgment may rise rather than fall. He is scheduled to join the World Laureates Forum in Shanghai on October 30, whose stated strength is cross-disciplinary exchange.
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