OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says mathematicians have already gone from 'we're cooked' to accepting AI

Like someone in mourning, Sam Altman said mathematicians went through phases after OpenAI began its blitz into the field. First, there was disbelief. Then, there was pain. "The day one reaction was like, 'We're cooked, and our field is over,'" OpenAI's CEO said. "'We're telling our grad students to switch majors.'" After that, there was anger. "The day three reaction was maybe like: 'It's horrible that OpenAI did this,'" Altman said at a recent talk at Stanford, before hundreds of students jittery about the viability of their future careers. Come day five, though, in Altman's telling, mathematicians began to come around to what he described as AI's now-inalienable role in the study of numbers and proofs.