Alessio Figalli studies optimal transport, a field of math that ranges from the movements of clouds to the workings of chatbots. By Siobhan Roberts The words “optimal” and “optimize” derive from the ...

Five years ago, mathematicians Dawei Chen and Quentin Gendron were trying to untangle a difficult area of algebraic geometry involving differentials, elements of calculus used to measure distance ...

Artificial intelligence systems may be good at generating text, recognizing images, and even solving basic math problems—but when it comes to advanced mathematical reasoning, they are hitting a wall.

One idle evening last October, Mehtaab Sawhney took up an old pastime. He began perusing the website erdosproblems.com, an updated record of the 1,179 conjectures left behind by the eccentric and ...

For all of the recent strides we’ve made in the math world—like a supercomputer finally solving the Sum of Three Cubes problem that puzzled mathematicians for 65 years—we’re forever crunching ...