New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- Fears of artificial intelligence (AI) outsmarting humans anytime soon are overblown, leading mathematicians have assured. AI is nowhere close to acquiring critical thinking, or reaching scientific breakthrough that humans are capable of, they said.

While they admit that AI is a powerful technology that will have a profound impact on society and economy, they emphasise that children should be encouraged to enjoy mathematics-'Math for Math's sake'-to help develop creativity and problem-solving skills.

"...that deep kind of critical thinking, analytic thinking, that keeps us producing new knowledge, that AI is not really doing yet, and whether it will be able to or not, that's sort of still an open question," Manjul B...