Viewing Single Episode
AI
Arts
Business
Crypto
Finance
Health
History
Interviews
Investing
Macro
Misc
News
Politics
Programming
Science
Social
Startups
Technology
VC
#472 – Terence Tao: Hardest Problems in Mathematics, Physics & the Future of AI
Duration: 03:23:41
June 15, 2025
- Terrence Tao discussed the Cay problem, which involves finding the minimum area needed to turn a needle around in a plane, and its surprising connections to diverse areas like PDEs, number theory, and wave propagation.
- Tao explored the Navier-Stokes equations, a fluid dynamics model, and his approach to engineering a "blow up" solution by selectively turning off interactions, thereby creating an obstruction to proving global regularity.
- Tao detailed the potential role of AI in mathematics, including its use in proof assistants like Lean, while emphasizing the critical need for AI to develop a "sense of smell" to distinguish fruitful strategies from dead ends in mathematical problem-solving.