Lex Fridman Podcast

#472 – Terence Tao: Hardest Problems in Mathematics, Physics & the Future of AI

Lex Fridman Podcast

Show Notes

Terence Tao is widely considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians in history. He won the Fields Medal and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, and has contributed to a wide range of fields from fluid dynamics with Navier-Stokes equations to mathematical physics & quantum mechanics, prime numbers & analytics number theory, harmonic analysis, compressed sensing, random matrix theory, combinatorics, and progress on many of the hardest problems in the history of mathematics.

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep472-sc

See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.

Transcript:

https://lexfridman.com/terence-tao-transcript

CONTACT LEX:

Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey

AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama

Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring

Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact

EPISODE LINKS:

Terence’s Blog: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/

Terence’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TerenceTao27

Terence’s Books: https://amzn.to/43H9Aiq

SPONSORS:

To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:

Notion: Note-taking and team collaboration.

Go to https://notion.com/lex

Shopify: Sell stuff online.

Go to https://shopify.com/lex

NetSuite: Business management software.

Go to http://netsuite.com/lex

LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix.

Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex

AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drink.

Go to https://drinkag1.com/lex

OUTLINE:

(00:00) – Introduction

(00:36) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections

(09:49) – First hard problem

(15:16) – Navier–Stokes singularity

(35:25) – Game of life

(42:00) – Infinity

(47:07) – Math vs Physics

(53:26) – Nature of reality

(1:16:08) – Theory of everything

(1:22:09) – General relativity

(1:25:37) – Solving difficult problems

(1:29:00) – AI-assisted theorem proving

(1:41:50) – Lean programming language

(1:51:50) – DeepMind’s AlphaProof

(1:56:45) – Human mathematicians vs AI

(2:06:37) – AI winning the Fields Medal

(2:13:47) – Grigori Perelman

(2:26:29) – Twin Prime Conjecture

(2:43:04) – Collatz conjecture

(2:49:50) – P = NP

(2:52:43) – Fields Medal

(3:00:18) – Andrew Wiles and Fermat’s Last Theorem

(3:04:15) – Productivity

(3:06:54) – Advice for young people

(3:15:17) – The greatest mathematician of all time

PODCAST LINKS:

– Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast

– Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr

– Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iH3xRUnROJ1kLD2HA8tRl

– RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/

– Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4

– Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips

More from Lex Fridman Podcast

Aug 26, 2026

DHH is the creator of Ruby on Rails, Omarchy Linux, CTO of 37signals, and a racecar driver.

Aug 12, 2026

Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the greatest fighters of all time, who retired from the UFC undefeated with a perfect 29-0 record. We did this conversation entirely in Russian. It’s translated and dubbed into English. Both language audio tracks (and subtitles) are available on YouTube. Here, only the English audio is available. We worked hard to make it enjoyable to listen to, by carefully dubbing the translation using voice-cloning, as we’ve done for previous foreign-language podcasts.

Jul 28, 2026

Gary Gallagher is a historian of the American Civil War.

Jun 30, 2026

Anthony Kaldellis is a historian of the Roman Empire and author of “The New Roman Empire”, a comprehensive history of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).

See all episodes →