AI Proof-Checking Moves Math From Trust To Audit

The institutional change is that proof is being recast as infrastructure. The field is no longer only asking whether a trained mathematician can follow an argument; it is asking whether a formal system can preserve that agreement across time, translation, and machine assistance. Scientific American's coverage of AI checking mathematicians' work places the tension in the reaction itself: the technical achievement is inseparable from the discomfort over who gets to certify mathematical truth. The certification layer is becoming part of the theorem.