Mathematics has been turned on its head by artificial intelligence. On October 6th, OpenAI released a torrent of more than 700 papers claiming progress on 372 problems—pushing mathematicians into strange new territory. The “mathpocalypse” could be a warning shot for the rest of science, about how AI could upend their disciplines. Or is there, in fact, lots to be cheerful about? A new scientific revolution in the offing?

Over the next four episodes, we’ll bring you conversations with scientists who are grappling with these intelligent new tools, people who are thinking about how it could reinvent the way they discover new things and understand the world. Next time: the biologists using foundation models to generate new life.

Guests and hosts:

• James Maynard of the University of Oxford
• Yang-Hui He of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Hear more about the new generation of mathematical machines in our May 2026 episode, “Maths enters its AI era”.

Topics covered:

• Mathematics
• Artificial intelligence
• Scientific discovery

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Will AI destroy humanity? Amid doom-laden debates on the trajectory of the technology, our guest has a refreshingly optimistic perspective. Andrew Ng is the co-founder of Google Brain and one of the architects of modern AI. Unlike many of the other AI heavyweights, however, he doesn’t think the technology poses the existential threat to humans that everyone else is warning about. What makes him so positive?

Guests and hosts:

• Alex Hern, AI writer at The Economist
• Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain, Coursera and LearnVector
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Watch Alex’s full interview with Andrew Ng on The Economist’s “Inside Tech”.

Topics covered:

• AI existential risk
• AI jobs apocalypse
• Artificial general intelligence

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Six more scientists have joined the esteemed ranks of Nobel laureates this week. Their work spanned optogenetics, neutrino detection and mirror-image molecules. How will their discoveries change the world?

Guests and hosts:

• Geoff Carr, senior editor for science and technology at The Economist
• Sam Wikeley, The Economist’s science correspondent
• Nikita Ostrovsky, science and tech writer at The Economist
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Optogenetics
• Neutrino astronomy
• Life’s asymmetry

For more, listen to our September 2025 episode, “JUNO: the hunt for the universe’s most elusive particles”.

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.