A larger question is whether this is what Grothendieck would have wanted.
In 1972, during his ecologist phase,
concerned that capitalist society was driving humanity towards ruin,
he gave a talk at CERN, near Geneva,
entitled
"Can We Continue Scientific Research?"
He didn’t know about AI
– but he was already opposed to this collusion between science and corporate industry.
Considering his pacifist values, he would probably also have been opposed to Huawei’s championing of his work;
-- its chief executive, #Ren #Zhengfei, is a former member of the People’s Liberation Army engineering corps.
The US department of defense,
as well as some independent researchers,
believes Huawei is controlled by the Chinese military.
Huawei insists it is a private company,
owned by its employees and its founding chairman,
Ren Zhengfei,
and that it is “not owned, controlled or affiliated to any government or third-party company”.
Lafforgue points out that France’s IHES,
where Grothendieck and later he worked,
was funded by industrial companies
– and thinks Huawei’s interest is legitimate.
Caramello, who is the founder and president of the Grothendieck Institute research organisation,
believes that he would have wanted a systematic exploration of his concepts to bring them to fruition.
“Topos theory is itself a kind of machine that can extend our imagination,” she says.
“So you see Grothendieck was not against the use of machines.
He was against blind machines, or brute force.”
What is unsettling is a degree of opaqueness about Huawei’s aims regarding AI and its collaborations,
including its relationship with the Grothendieck Institute,
where Lafforgue sits on the scientific council.
But Caramello stresses that it is an entirely independent body that engages in theoretical,
not applied research,
and that makes its findings available to all.
She says it does not research AI and that Lafforgue’s involvement pertains solely to his expertise in Grothendieckian maths.