Machine-Assisted Proofs

For centuries, mathematicians have relied on computers to perform calculations, suggest conjectures, and assist in developing mathematical proofs. In light of more modern tools such as interactive theorem provers, machine learning algorithms and generative AI, machines are playing a more creative and substantive role in the work of mathematicians.

In this Presidential Lecture, Terence Tao will survey historical and recent developments in the use of machines in mathematics. He will also speculate on the future roles of machine assistance in the field.

Tao was born in Adelaide, Australia, in 1975. He has been a professor of mathematics at UCLA since 1999, having completed his Ph.D. under Elias Stein at Princeton University in 1996. Tao’s research areas include harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics and number theory. He has received many awards, including the Salem Prize in 2000, the Fields Medal in 2006, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007, the Crafoord Prize in 2012 and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics in 2015. Tao also holds the James and Carol Collins chair in mathematics at UCLA and is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Australian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2020 to 2024, he served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.