Tao, 51, an Australian and American mathematician recognized for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and additive number theory, made the remarks in his lecture, "Mathematics in the Age of AI," delivered at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) last weekend. His speech drew widespread attention from the global mathematics community.
He began by reflecting on mathematics between 1900 and 1930, when breakthroughs such as Russell's paradox (1901) and the Gödel incompleteness theorems (1931) forced mathematicians to reexamine the discipline's underlying assumptions.
He said this "was a turbulent period for mathematics, but the end product was extremely valuable: an explicit, rigorous, and standardized foundational framework."
Noting that there is scope for further improvement, he stated: "I believe we are entering a similarly turbulent period, a crisis in the foundations of mathematical values and practices."
Fields Medalist Terence Tao. Photo courtesy of the University of California, Los Angeles
