The dark art of maths and the AI revolution | Letter
Bev Littlewood reminds us that mathematics has been the prime driver of the rise in AI, in response to an editorial
You report in your leader that some mathematicians feel discomfiture at the AI solution to a Navier-Stokes problem (The Guardian view on AI v mathematicians: humans are still vital to the field, but tech firms refuse to see that, 20 September). I fear that they have been hoist by their own petard: mathematics, after all, has been the prime mover of the AI revolution.
As a somewhat lowly mathematician, let me remind others of the famous quote of Augustine: “The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who make empty promises. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell.”
