“Social skills” and “mathematics” are terms not often grouped together. In the age of AI, one math scholar says that needs to change.
With AI now capable of handling the geeky legwork required by complex problems, Steven Strogatz, a lecturer and Susan and Barton Winokur Distinguished Professor at Cornell University, said mathematicians should prioritize developing their personal charm in order to set themselves apart.
“I’m starting to think that what makes a future mathematician or a math professor is your unique brand,” Strogatz said in an interview with Grant Sanderson, a math educator affiliated with Stanford University.
“Rizz is in more and more demand because it’s something that only people have,” he added.
Rizz, a Gen Z slang term, is defined by Merriam-Webster as “romantic appeal or charm.” (Strogatz, who is 67, appeared to use the term solely to mean charm or charisma. He did not suggest mathematicians need to work on their romantic prowess.)
“What we’re selecting for is an element of mathematical rizz,” said Sanderson. “The PhDs to be are not going to be differentiated by pure problem-solving abilities.”
The brusque push of AI companies into mathematics has caused consternation and head-scratching from many a math geek, as the field ponders ways to stay relevant while OpenAI floods the zone with hundreds of proposed solutions to the world’s most complex problems.
Some professors have sworn off AI altogether. Most, however, are trying to find ways to incorporate the technology into their work.
In September, a group of undergraduates at Caltech announced a “mathathon” event in which participants were encouraged to use AI to solve problems in a single, no-sleep sprint. Only days after the undergrads announced the event, a coalition of over 700 academics signed an open letter calling for its cancellation, citing its promotion of AI “slop.”
Though the event is set to continue, with some slight alterations, the clash underscored an internal conflict in the math community over how to adapt to AI — a development poised to impact many burgeoning careers in the field.
“We’ve had whole research programs wiped out on Tuesday,” Tristan Buckmaster, a math professor at NYU, said after OpenAI published 700 new findings about outstanding problems earlier this month.
The issue is of supreme importance to Strogatz, who has made several media appearances in the last couple of months. In an essay published in The Atlantic on Sunday, he put the issue in stark terms.
“I am a math professor, and my field is in crisis. Nobody in math is ever going to forget the year 2026,” he wrote. “Unless this is really the end of the subject, and then nobody will remember anything about math anyway.”
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