We are well into the era of human cope
23 May 2026 (The Intrinsic Perspective). Erik Hoel in his newsletter The Intrinsic Perspective, May 2026, in an essay on OpenAI's disproof of an Erdős conjecture, commenting skeptically on humans celebrating marginal mathematical improvements over AI-generated proofs.
More from Erik Hoel · AI and science · AI and culture · AI and philosophy · 2026
Who else?
What it refers to: Human reactions to AI math results, such as Will Sawin improving within a day the bound from OpenAI's AI-generated disproof of an Erdős conjecture.
Other voices
- “Mathematicians are having a Lee Sedol moment” Pedro Domingos,
- “Mathematics done by press” Magnus Wahlström,
- “If we don't adapt, there's just no more math in 50 years, no one is doing it, not even the machines” Daniel Litt,
- “Humans won't have enough context to understand the underlying web of machine-invented concepts” Steve Hsu,
- “We didn't ask for this” Unnamed mathematicians reacting to AI-generated proofs,
- “We'll have more answers and less understanding” Azeem Azhar, Builder,










