This is a PR problem, not a mathematical problem. It's possibly the worst PR problem mathematics has faced since the execution of Hippasus for whistleblowing on the cover-up of the regular dodecahedron. It's still a PR problem.
So what went wrong? Mathematics education. Math below grad school is all about solving stated problems. Credit is given for solving puzzles successfully. Homework is problem sets. Everybody below a very advanced level is taught math that way. Even at the higher levels, puzzles remain important. Awards in mathematics are often tied to solving puzzle-like problems. That's still the criterion for becoming Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain". This despite Polya's attempt at reform a century ago. Puzzle solving gets good grades and class rank. So it's the status indicator mathematics presents to the outside world.
Then reasonably good AI comes along. AI has become rather good at solving puzzles. So people aim powerful AIs at known hard puzzles, with some success. That blows up the status indicator system. Mathematics itself is fine. It's the status symbols that have a problem.
Maybe the Fields Medalists need to hire a crisis management team to reframe what success means in mathematics. That's what they're trying to do with that letter, but they're mathematicians, not PR people, and they don't know how.
In general, in our existing society, status matters, and it is tied to achievements. Therefore a thing that devalues the achievement is also causing people to lose status, and everything that comes with it (income etc). Of course they are mad.
But maybe the answer to that is to acknowledge that our civilization is basically a dick measuring contest at scale, and try something else for a change? Starting with the part where people don't have to be "productive" to have intrinsic value as a person?
That’s a charitable way to interpret what they’re trying to do in this letter. I would say they are trying to maintain the status quo to protect their status system.
Very interesting analysis. I was just reading this announcement, and thinking, that is the most pointless thing I've ever read. What are they trying to achieve with it? Your comment explains it.
So what went wrong? Mathematics education. Math below grad school is all about solving stated problems. Credit is given for solving puzzles successfully. Homework is problem sets. Everybody below a very advanced level is taught math that way. Even at the higher levels, puzzles remain important. Awards in mathematics are often tied to solving puzzle-like problems. That's still the criterion for becoming Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain". This despite Polya's attempt at reform a century ago. Puzzle solving gets good grades and class rank. So it's the status indicator mathematics presents to the outside world.
Then reasonably good AI comes along. AI has become rather good at solving puzzles. So people aim powerful AIs at known hard puzzles, with some success. That blows up the status indicator system. Mathematics itself is fine. It's the status symbols that have a problem.
Maybe the Fields Medalists need to hire a crisis management team to reframe what success means in mathematics. That's what they're trying to do with that letter, but they're mathematicians, not PR people, and they don't know how.