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A year ago, while working on FrontierMath Tier 4 problems, I found myself grieving what felt like a loss of identity. If LLMs could do things that took us years to master, what was left of the mathematician? A month later, my question changed: how do I use these tools and stay true to my passion for mathematics? I have not left academia. I am on leave, working in AI, because I believe our profession has changed. AI offers new tools for discovery, reasoning, and verification. The artistry is the constant. Mathematics was never about proving mathematicians are “smart” by amassing technical mastery. It has always been about beauty, taste, rigor, problems worthy of human attention, and applications that serve humanity. Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of math contests, or of the current frenetic need for benchmarks. I prefer the ideas and the actual math, even when the proofs are simple. As a senior mathematician, I think a lot about the future. This is part of my mandate as a member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board at the U.S. National Academies. I think about my intern Sidharth Hariharan, the first-year CMU PhD student featured in the NYT piece, and the many young mathematicians navigating these turbulent times. Sidharth is a role model for the formalization movement, but more generally he is a superb example of what I believe is possible for the future of mathematics. And he is not alone. We are seeing a huge response from students, postdocs, established mathematicians, and math PhDs returning from industry because they feel the tides turning. Training must change. Formalization, verification, and community-scale mathematical projects are not mere trends. They represent a growing movement that this senior mathematician sees as a bright future for mathematics. I see promise: more frontiers opened, and a renewed need for human taste. This gives me hope. Mahalo.