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Dwarkesh Podcast: Terence Tao Says AI Solved 50 Erdős Problems but Success Rate Is 1-2% — 'Labs Just Publish the Wins'
In a viral Dwarkesh Podcast interview (343K views), Fields Medalist Terence Tao provides a sobering counterpoint to AI math hype: while AI has solved 50 Erdős problems in the past year, the broader success rate is only 1-2% — labs selectively publicize wins. Almost all solved problems were 'lowest hanging fruit' with no prior literature, solvable by standard techniques. Tao considers AI a 'trustworthy co-author if used correctly' and notes his own papers now include more code and plots since AI makes generation trivial, but models cannot iterate on partial successes across sessions.
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