Will AI replace mathematicians? | Mathematics - Big Think

• Most everyone fears that they will be replaced by robots or AI someday.
• A field like mathematics, which is governed solely by rules that computers thrive on, seems to be ripe for a robot revolution.
• AI may not replace mathematicians but will instead help us ask better questions.

The following is an excerpt adapted from the book Shape. It is reprinted with permission of the author.

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Dr. Jordan Ellenberg, professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin observes, Will machines replace us? 

Photo: Patrick Lux via Getty Images

Since the origin of artificial intelligence (AI), people have worried that computers eventually (or even imminently!) will surpass the human cognitive capacity in every respect.

Artificial intelligence pioneer Oliver Selfridge, in a television interview from the early 1960s, said, "I am convinced that machines can and will think in our lifetime" — though with the proviso, "I don't think my daughter will ever marry a computer." (Apparently, there is no technical advance so abstract that people can't feel sexual anxiety about it.)

AI Anxiety

Let's make the relevant question more personal: will machines replace me? I'm a mathematician; my profession is often seen from the outside as a very complicated but ultimately purely mechanical game played with fixed rules, like checkers, chess, or Go. These are activities in which machines have already demonstrated superhuman ability.

But for me, math is different: it is a creative pursuit that calls on our intuition as much as our ability to compute...

Some people imagine a world where computers give us all the answers. I dream bigger. I want them to ask good questions.

Read more... 

Source: Big Think