Erik Hoel · Sep 9, 2026
Erik Hoel argues in The Intrinsic Perspective that culture is becoming a dark forest
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Erik Hoel’s essay, published September 9, 2026, argues that AI is pushing intellectual work into a “dark forest”: people may keep ideas and unfinished work private to avoid being overtaken by AI-assisted competitors. Hoel uses the Navier-Stokes episode to illustrate the concern. He reports that Tristan Buckmaster said he and his collaborator used to advance work begun by Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez-Zoroa, and that Buckmaster questioned claims about how much human input went into ’s result. Hoel also raises the possibility that the pair’s OpenAI chats could have been used in training, but says Buckmaster did not receive an answer to that question. The essay’s concern goes beyond credit or speed: Hoel argues that automated proofs may lack the human insight mathematicians value, and that the prospect of AI reproducing ideas could discourage people from sharing unfinished work and learning from one another. He calls this loss of open collaboration “vampiric and enervating and sad,” and concludes that intellectual work may increasingly happen in secrecy. The essay does not establish whether OpenAI used the pair’s chats, what the human team contributed, or whether AI-generated proofs can provide the insight mathematicians seek.
Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims.
Original source
Erik Hoel · Article
Source details
Original source date: Sep 9, 2026 (2026-09-09T12:58:46.000Z).
Date basis: Date supplied by the publisher’s feed.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-06T02:08:24.595Z. First observed: 2026-10-29T15:10:17.667Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-29T15:11:47.183Z.
Referenced by
Recorded citations and public file attachments. A reference alone does not establish agreement or influence.
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Limits
Text as retrieved on October 29, 2026; originally published September 9, 2026. Hoel says he cannot personally judge whether the AI-generated proofs are the kind of proofs mathematicians want to read. The essay leaves unresolved what the team did and whether the pair’s chats were used in training.
Open question
Did train on or otherwise use the mathematicians’ Codex sessions, and what information would establish whether it did?
Source-stated
Hoel argues that AI is making people who create culture keep their work private.
people producing the content of our culture—especially scientists and writers and mathematicians—are now living in a dark forest, all thanks to AI.
Source-stated
Hoel reports that Buckmaster credited Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa with the basic idea, which he and his collaborator used as a starting point with Large Language Models.
The credit for the basic idea of this program goes to Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez-Zoroa, who for several years have been exploring the construction of forced blow ups. We took their work as a starting point, using Large Language Models to push their program to completion
Source-stated
Hoel says Buckmaster asked whether OpenAI had trained on or accessed the pair’s Codex sessions and did not receive an answer about training.
I asked whether the model had been trained on, or had access to, our sessions in Codex, into which we had been putting all our drafts for the whole of this project. I was told the model did not look up user data. I asked again, about training, and I did not get an answer.
Source-stated
Hoel argues that AI may separate mathematical results from the human insight that makes proofs informative to mathematicians.
Open math problems are now a “non-renewable resource” (Tao’s term), because AI decouples the normal insights that come from human consciousness.
Source-stated
Hoel concludes that intellectual work will increasingly be done privately, as people try to avoid AI producing an almost-as-good version of their work.
the future of intellectual work is to be crouched behind a tree, frantically trying to complete your contribution as silently as possible.
Source and contributor context
Erik Hoel · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Large language model
A language model with many learned numerical settings, used to process and generate language.
OpenAI
OpenAI develops AI models and products and publishes research, release announcements and evaluations.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 4cd30db4-b0bc-1c91-0da8-9d372059ac46.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-06T02:04:46.572Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model, second_opinion_categorical.
Observation: 9daf07f982895570363454c94cad4a7ac865e0d5b80a864cacf21cf8228857c7. Source text hash: c02605c061e41baa2be4cb0a23cae80c7738cd270a06a565cf27224fe173c5fd.
Revision and source-check history
Version 1 · 2026-11-06T02:08:24.595Z
Erik Hoel argues in The Intrinsic Perspective that culture is becoming a dark forest
Erik Hoel’s essay, published September 9, 2026, argues that AI is pushing intellectual work into a “dark forest”: people may keep ideas and unfinished work private to avoid being overtaken by AI-assisted competitors. Hoel uses the Navier-Stokes episode to illustrate the concern. He reports that Tristan Buckmaster said he and his collaborator used to advance work begun by Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez-Zoroa, and that Buckmaster questioned claims about how much human input went into ’s result. Hoel also raises the possibility that the pair’s OpenAI chats could have been used in training, but says Buckmaster did not receive an answer to that question. The essay’s concern goes beyond credit or speed: Hoel argues that automated proofs may lack the human insight mathematicians value, and that the prospect of AI reproducing ideas could discourage people from sharing unfinished work and learning from one another. He calls this loss of open collaboration “vampiric and enervating and sad,” and concludes that intellectual work may increasingly happen in secrecy. The essay does not establish whether OpenAI used the pair’s chats, what the human team contributed, or whether AI-generated proofs can provide the insight mathematicians seek.
Original source
Erik Hoel · Article
Source details
Original source date: Sep 9, 2026 (2026-09-09T12:58:46.000Z).
Date basis: Date supplied by the publisher’s feed.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-06T02:08:24.595Z. First observed: 2026-10-29T15:10:17.667Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-29T15:11:47.183Z.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 29, 2026; originally published September 9, 2026. Hoel says he cannot personally judge whether the AI-generated proofs are the kind of proofs mathematicians want to read. The essay leaves unresolved what the team did and whether the pair’s chats were used in training.
Open question
Did train on or otherwise use the mathematicians’ Codex sessions, and what information would establish whether it did?
Source-stated
Hoel argues that AI is making people who create culture keep their work private.
people producing the content of our culture—especially scientists and writers and mathematicians—are now living in a dark forest, all thanks to AI.
Source-stated
Hoel reports that Buckmaster credited Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa with the basic idea, which he and his collaborator used as a starting point with Large Language Models.
The credit for the basic idea of this program goes to Diego Córdoba and Luis Martínez-Zoroa, who for several years have been exploring the construction of forced blow ups. We took their work as a starting point, using Large Language Models to push their program to completion
Source-stated
Hoel says Buckmaster asked whether OpenAI had trained on or accessed the pair’s Codex sessions and did not receive an answer about training.
I asked whether the model had been trained on, or had access to, our sessions in Codex, into which we had been putting all our drafts for the whole of this project. I was told the model did not look up user data. I asked again, about training, and I did not get an answer.
Source-stated
Hoel argues that AI may separate mathematical results from the human insight that makes proofs informative to mathematicians.
Open math problems are now a “non-renewable resource” (Tao’s term), because AI decouples the normal insights that come from human consciousness.
Source-stated
Hoel concludes that intellectual work will increasingly be done privately, as people try to avoid AI producing an almost-as-good version of their work.
the future of intellectual work is to be crouched behind a tree, frantically trying to complete your contribution as silently as possible.
Source and contributor context
Erik Hoel · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Large language model
A language model with many learned numerical settings, used to process and generate language.
OpenAI
OpenAI develops AI models and products and publishes research, release announcements and evaluations.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 4cd30db4-b0bc-1c91-0da8-9d372059ac46.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-06T02:04:46.572Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model, second_opinion_categorical.
Observation: 9daf07f982895570363454c94cad4a7ac865e0d5b80a864cacf21cf8228857c7. Source text hash: c02605c061e41baa2be4cb0a23cae80c7738cd270a06a565cf27224fe173c5fd.
uncertain · 2026-11-06T02:04:46.572Z · anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
Publication: 4cd30db4-b0bc-1c91-0da8-9d372059ac46
attribution — pass: The reading is one essay by Erik Hoel on The Intrinsic Perspective, and it attributes the argument to him. Buckmaster's statements are correctly presented as reported by Hoel. Tao's terms are not misattributed.
Professor Tristan Buckmaster at NYU—the academic half of the pair—says the idea
summary — uncertain: Navier-Stokes is central but never explained. The summary says only 'the Navier-Stokes episode' without saying it is one of the remaining Millennium Problems in math. It also omits that the pair's work was announced as near a solution and that OpenAI released a competing claim, which Hoel frames as a scoop. Codex in the question is also unexplained. Smallest repair: add one clause naming Navier-Stokes as a famous unsolved math problem and stating that OpenAI announced its own claim, which Hoel says forced the pair to release early.
Enter Navier-Stokes: one of six remaining Millennium Problems in math.
date — pass: The stated date, September 9, 2026, matches originalPublished and the source dateline. modifiedAt equals the publication time. The limitations disclose the October 29, 2026 retrieval. No later events or hindsight framing are used, and the predictions are attributed to Hoel.
Sep 09, 2026
support — pass: Each claim is supported by quoted source text: the dark-forest thesis, Buckmaster's credit to Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa, the unanswered training question, Tao's insight concern and the conclusion about secrecy. The summary's statements about questioned human input and discouraged sharing are grounded in the source. The question follows from the unanswered training query.
This turned out not to be true…. it emerged that an entire team had been working on the problem….
media — pass: No media was selected and no verified candidates were supplied, so there is no identity or relevance issue.
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