Meet ‘Mozart of Math’ Terence Tao: A mathematics genius who started playing with numbers at 2, won International Olympiad at 13, and earned a PhD at 20

For many around the world, math problems look like a tough mountain to climb. But for Terence Tao, the American-Australian mathematician, it's a piece of cake. His achievements are a big testament to his mental ability, which goes beyond anything one could imagine. Born in Adelaide, Australia, Tao fell in love with numbers as a child while playing games and solving puzzles. His parents immigrated there from Hong Kong.

At the age of 2, when many children struggle to speak and form basic sentences, Tao had learned to read. At the same age, he began teaching older children a thing or two about counting with the use of toy blocks, according to UCLA magazine. It was just a small beginning of the much bigger story.

Phenomenuil things followed which made him a prodigy in his preteen years. At 7, he began learning calculus, and by age 9, he was already university-level in the subject. For all his achievements and genius ability, Tao has been referred to as the “Mozart of Math” since 2006. A UCLA mathematics colleague, John Garnett, had said, “Terry is like Mozart; mathematics just flows out of him, except without Mozart’s personality problems,” as quoted by UCLA magazine

Terence Tao’s achievements

As Tao grew older, his achievements got bigger. He thrived in the world of international mathematics competitions at 11. He became the youngest winner of the International Mathematical Olympiad at the age of 13. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from Princeton University at 20.

That’s not all. After his Ph.D., Tao joined UCLA as faculty, and by the age of 24, he was promoted to full professor. He remains the youngest person ever to become a full professor at the university.

Awards

Throughout the course of his life, Tao grew from strength to strength, bagging nearly every award a mathematician can win. The list of awards includes the Fields Medal in 2006, according to the UCLA magazine.

According to the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, his other awards include the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “Genius Grant,” and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.

While working together with the University of Oxford’s Ben J. Green, Tao proved the Green-Tao theorem, which states “that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes.” Tao currently holds UCLA’s James and Carol Collins Chair and is working as director of special projects at the university’s Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.


Terence Tao on Artificial Intelligence


In an interview with UCLA magazine, Tao spoke at length on how AI has impacted the world of mathematics and what happens when AI starts to think on behalf of the people. He emphasized that there are many good and useful ways in which AI can be used.

On the other hand, he also highlighted that there are also dangerous ways. “For students, we have to be very wary. It is especially risky for students to ask an AI to solve a problem assigned to them to help train them. It’s analogous to when calculators came out; you don’t give it to students who are learning how to add,” Tao said.

He further stated that AI should not think on our behalf as there’s always a trade-off when technology is used. “You give up some of your physical or mental muscles. I use GPS all the time when I drive, and I feel I’m giving up some of my geography sense. Before GPS, I had a very good knowledge of my neighborhood; I knew what streets were next to what streets, and I feel that fading. It’s a trade-off that I’ve chosen to make,” Tao said.

“I’m willing to give up some geographic knowledge so I can free up mental space for other things. We have to decide on our AI diet, so to speak. We can cheaply solve all kinds of mental problems, but it can degrade our mental fitness, just like eating too much junk food can degrade our health,” he concluded.