This is all reasonable of course, and I think you're have to be pretty cold-hearted to disagree too vociferously. What OpenAI did (opening an announcement by name-dropping the exact institution that told them not to, implying they got buy-in) is just objectively bad-faith, and more of the same from Mr. Altman.

Mathematics is an academy, and academies are human assemblages for producing truth (and the tools therein); they will stop producing if we forget to repair and refine them. It's just undeniable in the abstract.

(Sorry for the length, cut it as much as I could; mod(s) remove if you'd like. Talking to myself in the shadow of giants is how I'm coping with the ennui, I think.) That said, four philosophy nits on paradigms, scope, motivation, and pride:

1. Paradigms | The 'Math 1.0' rhetoric is undeniably powerful, but it makes it seem like he's unaware of his standpoint[1] by lumping all of "traditional mathematics" together. At the very least we've gone through four methodological revolutions in math, each one changing how the field is done on a fundamental level: ??? => Euclidean Certainty => Aristotlean Computation (~800s) => ~Newtonian Calculation (1600s) => ~Gaussian Systems (~1850s), and perhaps one in the 20th c. I lack the expertise to even gesture at. We also have clear analogues from parts of the other two acadamies in the 20th century alone: physics becoming an arcane, inelegant group effort in the ~1920s, and mainstream philosophy adopting a cloud of Kiki ideas vaguely revolving around Wittgeinstein & Chomsky in the ~1960s.

I totally understand this being distressing, especially when it's happening quickly. They, too, had people decrying the future of their fields. But we wouldn't obviously wouldn't change it, in hindsight; much of modern physics would be completely intractable without those strange, boring, unnerving methods, for example. More than intractable: unthinkable.

2. Scope | This all seems overly focused on Autumn 2026. Most egregiously, this is all built on the premise that RSI never happens, and we never acheive ASI. If we do, mathematics is almost assuredly A) the first academy to be completely outmoded, and B) the least of our problems. I cut a long thing about the caveats and effects here; at this point... if you know, you know.

3. Motivation | Ultimately this thread is focusing on human motivation throughout, a fact that would be more forgivable if acknowledged as an intentional tradeoff. Speculating that it'll be harder to have interest in math is just not worth withholding truth; for one thing, knowing that computers could solve a problem but it's banned to try would ruin motivation anyway, and worse. It's up to us to be motivated, and if I know us, we'll have no problem doing so as long as there's any utility there at all.

In more stark terms: trading progress in the fundamental academy for the sake of its current methods of recruitment and motivation seems like something posterity will almost definitely frown upon.

4. Pride | This is the common thread that weaves through all three preceeding points, I think, and is even stated in pretty blatant terms (that's Tao -- always a clear writer!):

  ...promising open directions are now being withheld from the public in fear that this will cause their own research to be "scooped"... "Math 1.0" placed a premium on being the first to solve an open problem, even if the solution was not initially well understood.

Sure, his thesis acknowledges that some changes are welcome, but not radical ones; his tone implies tweaks to conference schedules and authorship norms rather than fundamental restructuring of what these professions are, and what it's like to dedicate one's life to the demos through them.

Doing science (mathematic or otherwise) in this competitive, individualistic way is just clearly counterintuitive to me, even if it weren't a recent development. Imagine taking it to its conclusion and applying some kind of patent system to mathematics -- or even worse, copyright to combinations of symbols! Perhaps more riches would motivate some mathematicians, but it would so obviously eat away at the democratic principles that have brought us unimaginably far over the past 406 years.

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TL;DR: What worked well for the past ~century is not particularly relevant, and I think Tao is missing the forest here, despite one of the best sylvan trailblazers around. On his side practically-speaking for heuristic and contingent reasons, regardless.