What Is Math For in the Age of AI? - Live from ICM 2026 | PODCAST: The Joy of Why

By Quanta Magazine

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In this special live recording from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, July 2026, the central question discussed was what do mathematicians really value about doing mathematics in the first place? “The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the cosmologist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. For more episodes visit Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/ --------- 00:00 – Welcome, Introductions & the AlphaProof/IMO Milestone 04:25 – The Erdős Problems & AI's First Real Proof 09:43 – Is Proof the Point? Math as Storytelling 15:44 – Mathematical Intuition and "Moral Truth" 20:19 – AI Homework and the "Double-Peak" Test Scores 26:22 – Will Math Still Be Fun? Debating the Singularity 29:47 – The Forklift Analogy: Why Struggle Matters 34:44 –

Tags: artificial intelligence, Erdos conjecture, foundations of mathematics, mathematics, proofs, The Joy of Why, AI, ICM, science, quanta magazine, math