Living Proof: Kevin Buzzard and proof assistants - Maths on the Move

There's been a lot of talk recently about whether artificial intelligence is becoming just as good as maths as humans are. But quietly in the background there's been another development regarding the use of computers in maths. It involves proof assistants: computer programmes that can check whether a mathematical proof is correct; whether it can be derived from a set of basic axioms of mathematics using only the rules of logic. In this episode of Living proof we meet <a href='https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/k.buzzard'>Kevin Buzzard</a>, an expert on proof assistants at University College London. Kevin explains what proof assistants are, how using them is like playing a computer game, and why they turn maths into a highly collaborative pursuit. He also tells us about his effort to get a proof assistant to check one of the most famous results in all of mathematics — Fermat's Last Theorem — and how proof assistants and AI may team up to provide a powerful tool. We met Kev...