Due to the increasing skill of AI models, current times feel turbulent to anyone doing knowledge work. I elaborate more the problems (and possible solutions) AI poses for academic science in a future post, but here I want to provide an summary of what I believe to be worthwhile discussions or analyses.

There are many different interpretations, opinions, and expectations for the impact and role of AI in science now and in the future. I hope this diversity is well-represented in the content posted below. I present these as-is, without endorsing

These posts are almost exclusively long-form content (podcasts, interviews, video essays, long-reads, papers), which I believe is really the only way to engage with this topic apart from discussing with others or experimenting with the technology yourself. Best to avoid the noise on social media, which is full of alarmism and bad takes.

Note that some opinions or interpretations can quickly become outdated. For historical sake, I will move such entries that are outdated to an archived section with a reason why.

AI in science

• Numberphile interview of Tristan Buckmaster, in-depth on controversy around OpenAI’s Navier Stokes MP-solution, and Buckmaster’s release just prior
• A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics, open letter by Fields medalists
• 3blue1brown’s case for optimism in the field of mathematics (and perhaps science more broadly)
• 100 reactions to 100 solutions: a snapshot of the initial responses to OpenAI’s dump of hundreds of solutions to mathematical problems
• A Google study on “early insights” of AI in science
• TheoPhysEval shows GPT-6-Astra and Opus 5.5 are starting to work through difficult physics problems
• How to avoid AI brain rot, longer demonstration and discussion of how to use AI in a way prevents skill atrophy

AI in broader society

• Bill Gates has written a long blog post where he expresses concerns and potential solutions to AI in society.
• In an interview by Ezra Klein, Bill Gates aggitatedly defends his case under pushback from the Ezra.
• Andrew Ng interview by The Economist (paywall) - pushback on doomism
• Ethics forum ETH on free speech and AI surveillance
• WaitButWhy’s two-part series on AI revolution from 2015