AI’s systemic role in reshaping mathematical and physical inquiry: Algorithmic patterns, institutional power, and the future of knowledge production
Original framing: “How AI is reshaping discovery in maths and physics” — Nature
The current AI 'revolution' in science echoes past cycles of tool-driven paradigm shifts, from the printing press to the calculator, each of which reinforced existing power structures. The 19th-century rise of statistical mechanics similarly reshaped physics, but its methods were later critiqued for obscuring social and political contexts. The 20th-century 'computer revolution' in mathematics (e.g., Bourbaki’s structuralism) prioritized abstraction over applied, contextual problem-solving. Each wave of 'disruption' has ultimately privileged institutionalized knowledge over marginalized epistemologies.
The AI-driven reshaping of mathematical and physical inquiry is not merely a technical shift but a reconfiguration of epistemic power, where proprietary algorithms and institutional gatekeeping threaten to homogenize knowledge while erasing non-Western and Indigenous traditions.
This process mirrors historical patterns of tool-driven paradigm shifts, from the printing press to statistical mechanics, each of which reinforced existing hierarchies under the guise of progress. The marginalization of Indigenous and Global South mathematicians—such as those preserving African fractal geometry or Māori cosmological networks—reveals a deeper crisis of epistemic injustice, where AI’s 'discovery' is framed as universal while being trained on biased, Eurocentric data. Yet, as tricksters like Hermes and Anansi remind us, these systems are not immutable; they can be subverted through decentralized, community-owned alternatives. The path forward requires decolonizing AI’s training data, institutionalizing epistemic pluralism, and regulating AI’s role in science to prevent its capture by elite interests. Without these interventions, AI will not 'revolutionize' discovery but will instead entrench the very power structures it claims to transcend.