# Solving Math's Greatest Problems Was an Art Form. Then Came AI

> **Publication**: aitalky (Independent AI Journalism)
> **Canonical Citation URL**: https://aitalky.vercel.app/news/solving-maths-greatest-problems-was-an-art-form-then-came-ai
> **Original Source**: [Wired AI](https://www.wired.com/story/solving-maths-greatest-problems-was-an-art-form-until-ai/)
> **Author**: Sophia Chen (undefined)
> **Published Date**: Monday, September 28, 2026
> **Category**: RESEARCH
> **Tags**: News, Wired AI, AI

## Executive Summary
Mathematics has been one of humanity's most creative endeavors, akin to painting and poetry. Now, mathematicians are trying to save it from the brute force of AI

## Key Takeaways
- “The artists and the musicians have already gone through this,” says Juspreet Singh Sandhu, a mathematician at Colorado State University.
- At this point, though, useless is exactly what OpenAI’s proof is. The puzzle it solves is simply one that’s been interesting to mathematicians for decades.
- While people do perform results-oriented math, such as to design new cryptography protocols or optimization algorithms for robotics, the mathematics community is by and large “interested in more than just a yes or no answer to a problem,” says Speck.


## Full Coverage
"The artists and the musicians have already gone through this," says Juspreet Singh Sandhu, a mathematician at Colorado State University

Despite what timed high school exams might have you believe, mathematicians aren't focused on getting the right answer as fast as possible. In fact, contrary to math's image as a practical subject, the development of new mathematical ideas often resembles artistic exploration, akin to inventing a game or puzzle. Mathematicians typically follow a thoughtful, deliberate process to develop their ideas. In contrast, OpenAI approached the proof with brute force, which shortcut the process in a way that threatens to undermine human understanding

"A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns," wrote the English mathematician G. H. Hardy in his 1940 essay, A Mathematician's Apology . As Hardy describes it, a painter uses shapes and colors, and a poet uses words, while a mathematician constructs patterns out of ideas

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