OCTOBER 6TH 2026 may be remembered as the biggest day in the history of mathematics. OpenAI, an American frontier lab(前沿实验室), released more than 700 academic papers claiming progress or solutions for 372 problems that had baffled(使困惑、难住) scholars for decades. Mathematicians are still struggling to digest(消化、理解) what it means for their discipline.
2026年10月6日或许会被铭记为数学史上最重要的一天。美国前沿实验室OpenAI发布了700多篇学术论文，宣称在372个困扰学者数十年的问题上取得了进展或找到了解决方案。数学家们至今仍在努力消化这对他们学科意味着什么。
The implications(影响、潜在后果) promise to go far beyond maths. It is time to grapple with(努力应对、设法解决) how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect science as a whole. The maths results are, simultaneously, a leap forward for humanity; a marvel that underscores the breakneck progress of AI; and a warning of a future in which understanding of the universe could belong to machines that are impenetrable to human minds.(这些数学成果同时意味着：人类的一次飞跃；一个彰显AI飞速发展的奇迹；以及对未来的一个警告——那时对宇宙的理解可能属于人类心智无法参透的机器。) The question is how to achieve progress without sacrificing understanding.
其影响远不止于数学。现在是时候认真思考人工智能将如何影响整个科学了。这些数学成果同时意味着：人类的一次飞跃；一个彰显AI飞速发展的奇迹；以及对未来的一个警告——那时对宇宙的理解可能属于人类心智无法参透的机器。问题在于，如何在取得进步的同时不牺牲理解。
AIs have so vividly shown their scientific potential in maths because its proofs are derived from axioms, not evidence, and are therefore, in principle, verifiable mechanically.(AI之所以在数学领域如此鲜明地展现了科学潜力，是因为数学证明从公理而非证据推导而来，因此原则上可以机械地验证。) But as we report in our special Science & technology section this week, AI has also accelerated progress in the empirical(经验的、实证的) sciences, partly because other fields use maths as a tool. AI has made weather forecasts better. It has proposed millions of possible useful new materials and helped control experiments with nuclear fusion(核聚变). And it can predict the shapes of almost every known protein from its constituent(组成的、成分) amino acids, an advance that won a Nobel prize.
AI之所以在数学领域如此鲜明地展现了科学潜力，是因为数学证明从公理而非证据推导而来，因此原则上可以机械地验证。但正如我们本周在特别科学与技术版块所报道的，AI也加速了经验科学的进步，部分原因是其他领域将数学作为工具。AI改善了天气预报。它提出了数百万种可能有用的新材料，并帮助控制核聚变实验。它还能根据组成氨基酸预测几乎所有已知蛋白质的形状——这一进展赢得了诺贝尔奖。
The baby and the bathtub
婴儿与洗澡水