Terence Tao publishes 'Why do we need human mathematicians anymore?' as his slowdown clip tops r/OpenAI

Terence Tao's blog (via Hacker News, 223 points) and r/OpenAI (802 upvotes)·medium signalXBlueskyLinkedInCopy link

Tao posted 'Why do we need human mathematicians anymore?' on 2026-09-19, which took 223 points on Hacker News, two days after 'If math is more than proof, we need to better celebrate the rest of it' (411 points). In parallel, a clip of him saying 'we have to slow down AI, the pace is insane, and there's no reason to be this fast, no reason at all' became the top discussion post on r/OpenAI at 802 upvotes and 544 comments. The pairing is what makes it interesting: the working mathematician most publicly engaged with AI proof assistants is arguing the value of mathematics is not the proof artifact, at the same moment his slowdown remarks are being used as ammunition in the industry deceleration fight.