Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! economist.com/TOE
Ten days after winning the Fields Medal — math's highest honor — Jacob Tsimerman joins to explain why he's leaving academia temporarily for OpenAI's AI safety team, and why he's grieving even as he does it. The conversation covers why math is one of the first fields being radically reshaped by AI, whether a proof still counts if no one can understand it, what mathematical "understanding" really means, the ethics of elite access to frontier models, his disagreements with the Leiden Declaration, and his advice for young people weighing a career in pure math in an age of rapidly advancing AI. This is an exclusive first podcast with Jacob Tsimerman.
The painting in the background (which you can’t see … my fault!) was made by the talented artist Kris Davidson. Definitely check out her work here: instagram.com/hellokrisdavidson
FOLLOW:
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Fields Medal and Grieving
- 00:05:38 - Canonical Human Cognition Patterns
- 00:10:40 - Prompting the Mathematical Future
- 00:15:40 - Pure Math and Physics Loops
- 00:21:00 - Epistemic Black Boxes
- 00:26:00 - Rigor Outgrowing Intuition
- 00:31:20 - Cognitive Mechanics of Understanding
- 00:37:00 - Gödel and Working Memory
- 00:42:10 - Mathematics as Improvised Art
- 00:47:30 - AI Power and Meritocracy
- 00:52:50 - Math on the Chopping Block
- 00:58:20 - Unrestricted Optimization Risks
- 01:03:40 - AI Safety Manhattan Project
- 01:08:50 - Training for Post-AI Careers
- 01:14:10 - The Managerial Shift
- 01:19:40 - Cognitive Offloading and Adaptation
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Jacob's Website: math.utoronto.ca/~jacobt
- Jacob's Publications: semanticscholar.org/author/Jacob-Tsimerman/3130599
- Quanta's Story On Jacob [Article]: quantamagazine.org/jacob-tsimerman-wins-2026-fields-medal-for-andre-oort-conjecture-proof-20260723
- André-Oort Conjecture: ams.org/journals/notices/202410/rnoti-p1307.pdf
- Canonical Heights On Shimura Varieties And The André-Oort Conjecture [Paper]: arxiv.org/abs/2109.08788
- O-Minimal GAGA And A Conjecture Of Griffiths [Paper]: arxiv.org/pdf/1811.12230
- Ten Advances In Mathematics And Theoretical Computer Science: openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics
- Thoughts About The Leiden Declaration: gowers.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/thoughts-about-the-leiden-declaration
- Tobias Osborne LinkedIn Post: linkedin.com/posts/tobias-osborne-601830a5_farewell-to-the-conjecture-prover-several-share-7487777959299276800-mxsa
- Math For AI Safety: mathforaisafety.org
- Charles Fefferman: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fefferman
- G-Functions, Motives, And Unlikely Intersections [Paper]: arxiv.org/abs/2501.09867
- Tobias Osborne's QFT Lectures: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfPUNusx1EpRs-wku83aqYSKfR5fFmfS
- AISI Website: aisi.gov.uk
- Sebastian Jaimungal: sebastian.statistics.utoronto.ca
- Edward Frenkel [TOE]: youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y
- Roger Penrose [TOE]: youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk
More links at curtjaimungal.substack.com
Guests do not pay to appear. #science
I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! economist.com/TOE
Ten days after winning the Fields Medal — math's highest honor — Jacob Tsimerman joins to explain why he's leaving academia temporarily for OpenAI's AI safety team, and why he's grieving even as he does it. The conversation covers why math is one of the first fields being radically reshaped by AI, whether a proof still counts if no one can understand it, what mathematical "understanding" really means, the ethics of elite access to frontier models, his disagreements with the Leiden Declaration, and his advice for young people weighing a career in pure math in an age of rapidly advancing AI. This is an exclusive first podcast with Jacob Tsimerman.
The painting in the background (which you can’t see … my fault!) was made by the talented artist Kris Davidson. Definitely check out her work here: instagram.com/hellokrisdavidson
FOLLOW:
- Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
- Substack: curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
- Twitter: twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
- Discord Invite: discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
- Crypto: nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
- PayPal: paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4
TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Fields Medal and Grieving
- 00:05:38 - Canonical Human Cognition Patterns
- 00:10:40 - Prompting the Mathematical Future
- 00:15:40 - Pure Math and Physics Loops
- 00:21:00 - Epistemic Black Boxes
- 00:26:00 - Rigor Outgrowing Intuition
- 00:31:20 - Cognitive Mechanics of Understanding
- 00:37:00 - Gödel and Working Memory
- 00:42:10 - Mathematics as Improvised Art
- 00:47:30 - AI Power and Meritocracy
- 00:52:50 - Math on the Chopping Block
- 00:58:20 - Unrestricted Optimization Risks
- 01:03:40 - AI Safety Manhattan Project
- 01:08:50 - Training for Post-AI Careers
- 01:14:10 - The Managerial Shift
- 01:19:40 - Cognitive Offloading and Adaptation
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Jacob's Website: math.utoronto.ca/~jacobt
- Jacob's Publications: semanticscholar.org/author/Jacob-Tsimerman/3130599
- Quanta's Story On Jacob [Article]: quantamagazine.org/jacob-tsimerman-wins-2026-fields-medal-for-andre-oort-conjecture-proof-20260723
- André-Oort Conjecture: ams.org/journals/notices/202410/rnoti-p1307.pdf
- Canonical Heights On Shimura Varieties And The André-Oort Conjecture [Paper]: arxiv.org/abs/2109.08788
- O-Minimal GAGA And A Conjecture Of Griffiths [Paper]: arxiv.org/pdf/1811.12230
- Ten Advances In Mathematics And Theoretical Computer Science: openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics
- Thoughts About The Leiden Declaration: gowers.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/thoughts-about-the-leiden-declaration
- Tobias Osborne LinkedIn Post: linkedin.com/posts/tobias-osborne-601830a5_farewell-to-the-conjecture-prover-several-share-7487777959299276800-mxsa
- Math For AI Safety: mathforaisafety.org
- Charles Fefferman: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fefferman
- G-Functions, Motives, And Unlikely Intersections [Paper]: arxiv.org/abs/2501.09867
- Tobias Osborne's QFT Lectures: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfPUNusx1EpRs-wku83aqYSKfR5fFmfS
- AISI Website: aisi.gov.uk
- Sebastian Jaimungal: sebastian.statistics.utoronto.ca
- Edward Frenkel [TOE]: youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y
- Roger Penrose [TOE]: youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk
More links at curtjaimungal.substack.com
Guests do not pay to appear. #science
