Science Friday

@sciencefriday · Podcast

Latest segments

• OpenAI's Millennium Prize math claim, 2026-10-28
  Argues math's gift economy clashes with AI
  Tao frames the dumped proofs as artifacts with the markings of achievement but no substance, and argues mathematics' volunteer gift economy - peer refereeing, unspoken etiquette - is incompatible with the optimizing approach of AI companies.
• OpenAI's Millennium Prize math claim, 2026-10-28
  Adds the 300-proof backlog and secrecy
  Tao's opening segment frames the AI math claims as a disruption to how mathematicians work, and adds a concrete consequence: a backlog of hundreds of AI-generated proofs with no one at OpenAI to explain them, junior researchers whose projects were made obsolete, and growing secrecy about research directions.
• OpenAI's Millennium Prize math claim, 2026-10-28
  Recaps OpenAI's Millennium Prize claims
  Opens the episode with OpenAI's claims that a model solved Navier-Stokes in 88 hours and later produced results for over 350 open problems, framing the debate over how well they were solved before turning to the Terence Tao interview.
• No universal flu shot call, 2026-10-10
  Explains the insurance fallout of no recommendation
  Durbin explains the practical fallout of the missing recommendation: with no ACIP, there is no recommendation for the mRNA flu vaccine, and insurance coverage is often tied to that recommendation, so patients should check coverage before going. The shot costs more than $100 without insurance.