Thursday 22 October 2026 4:11 am  |  Updated:  Wednesday 21 October 2026 3:46 pm

Will AI erase all meritocracy?

By: Lewis Z Liu

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Before generative AI, the world still retained some semblance of meritocracy. But in a world where “intelligence” is directly correlated with how much money you can spend on compute, will it be erased entirely, asks Lewis Liu

OpenAI recently bulk-published 700 mathematics papers in one go. Leveraging its research agents, it claimed to have solved some extremely important mathematical problems, many of which will likely be validated as correct.  

My friends in the field are deeply alarmed about the state of mathematics, what this means for them personally as professionals, and what it means for the field. Terence Tao, the UCLA professor widely regarded as the world’s greatest living mathematician, has even called for the discipline to boycott OpenAI.  

One alarming argument now circulating through the mathematics community, and beyond, is that this seals the fate of the capital versus labour debate in our society. The argument goes that, before generative AI, the world still retained some semblance of meritocracy. If you used your brain and worked hard, you could leverage your intelligence to make money or gain status, whether as a professional, entrepreneur or scientist.  

But in a world where “intelligence” is directly correlated with how much money you are willing and able to spend on compute, scaled “intelligence” becomes accessible only to those with enormous wealth and capital. That creates a permanent trap for anyone who has not accumulated wealth during the AI boom, destroying the opportunity for even the most talented and hardest-working people to progress in life.  

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