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Move over, vibe-coding. Vibe-proving is here for math episode artwork

Mar 27, 2026 18 min

Move over, vibe-coding. Vibe-proving is here for math

from Science Friday Hosted by Flora Lichtman, Dee Peterschmidt, Emily Riehl, Daniel Litt

When ChatGPT first came onto the scene, it wowed users with its writing abilities, but drew laughs for generating images of seven-fingered hands and struggling with basic math, where 2+2 didn’t always equal 4. But more recently, things have changed: Google and OpenAI’s models bagged gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad last year, and now some experts say AI could pose an existential threat to the field of mathematics itself. Mathematicians Emily Riehl and Daniel Litt join Host Flora Lichtman to explore how this technology could change the way math discoveries are made—and what could be lost if things go too far. Guests: Dr. Emily Riehl is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Daniel Litt is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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A few years ago, ChatGPT couldn’t do simple arithmetic. Now, some experts say that AI could make mathematicians obsolete.

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Move over, vibe-coding. Vibe-proving is here for math

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