UC Berkeley Math Professor Drops Homework Grading
UC Berkeley math professor Richard Borcherds no longer grades homework assignments. He believes AI now completes them entirely, rendering traditional assessment pointless as improvements continue.
Borcherds revealed this after OpenAI’s announcement that AI agents solved the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem. He said grading solely on completion is “not a very good system” but offered no alternative.
He added he has no idea what advice to give students on pursuing mathematics, as it once seemed safest career amid the AI boom. He even asked ChatGPT the same question, receiving no clear answer.
The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate requests faculty include AI expectations in syllabi, though policies vary by course. Campus tested Turnitin and Rumi without full standardization; faculty discretion applies, with sample statements available via the AI Hub.
“If AI continues to improve at present rate, then in a few years there’ll be nothing human mathematicians can do that AI can’t do better.”
Borcherds described “plenty of inertia” in academia and compared journals to obsolete technologies like hand-weaving or horses. He noted this is the first such shift in mathematics.