Author Archives: woit

AI and Chiral Fermions

Posted on October 8, 2026 by woit

It turns out that yesterday there was another AI result coming out of OpenAI, quite different than the slopocalypse and of more interest to fundamental physics. Nathaniel Craig, a particle theorist now on a one-year visiting position at OpenAI, put … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | 7 Comments

Slopocalypse

Posted on October 6, 2026 by woit

OpenAI has just released a vast number of new results in preprint form, see here. These are the products of an internal frontier model. About the AGMAI, they say they “have drawn on their advice and public recommendations⁠ to inform … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | 26 Comments

Some HEP-TH News

Posted on September 25, 2026 by woit

In a previous posting, I’d noted that the number of arXiv hep-th preprints/month was significantly higher recently, clearly due to LLM use, but that I hadn’t heard of much in the way of significant new results coming from this. Around … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, This Week's Hype | 17 Comments

A Modest Proposal

Posted on September 9, 2026 by woit

The announcement yesterday by OpenAI of a solution to the Millennium Prize Navier-Stokes problem has been causing a great deal of discussion among mathematicians. There’s a lot to be said about this story and its implications, most of which I’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | 21 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXVII

Posted on September 7, 2026 by woit

Ever since a new Columbia president (Jennifer Mnookin) was appointed by the trustees back in January, many have been wondering if she would do anything to try and change Columbia’s reputation as “Vichy on the Hudson”. The reason for this … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 13 Comments

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Posted on September 7, 2026 by woit

As an antidote to the overwhelmingly depressing news of the world, I highly recommend reading the new article in the New York Times about this mathematical result. There have been some articles about this earlier in places like Scientific American … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on August 25, 2026 by woit

The Economist today reports that New theories and experiments should shine light on string theory. This is more of the promotional campaign for Cumrun Vafa’s “dark dimension”. We’re told that a torsion balance experiment in Austria will “according to Dr. … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 8 Comments

HEP-TH and AI

Posted on August 16, 2026 by woit

I’ve been talking to people and seeing a lot of discussion about the effects of AI agents on math research, but haven’t found much serious discussion of what is happening in hep-th research. I’m curious to hear from those involved … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, This Week's Hype | 26 Comments

Requiem for a Field?

Posted on July 26, 2026 by woit

Kevin Hartnett posted the following Friday: My profile of @Jacob_Tsimerman, published the morning he won the Fields Medal, and hours before he announced he’s going to @OpenAI, reads like a requiem for a field. While I’m trying to not spend … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | 26 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on July 15, 2026 by woit

Some things that might be of interest: The ICM is starting next week in Philadelphia. One traditional aspect of the ICM is the announcement of the Fields Medal winners. This year there won’t be much surprise, since evidently someone found … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture, Quantum Mechanics, Strings 2XXX, Uncategorized | 13 Comments