Fields Medalist and MacArthur Fellow Terence Tao delivered the 2026 AIM Public Lecture to a sold-out crowd at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium on October 9th. The venue was filled to capacity for the evening talk, titled "Math 2.0."
Originally planned more than a year ago under the title "Machine Assisted Proof," the lecture was postponed from May to October, and Tao reshaped it significantly in light of recent developments in AI and mathematics. In it, he traces the traditional "Math 1.0" model of how mathematics has been done, examines the current moment and its heavy focus on using AI to automatically solve open problems, and lays out his vision for a "Math 2.0," a future where AI tools strengthen the mathematical community itself and help mathematical understanding guide and align its real-world applications.