August 2026 Optimism Corner
By Robert S. Loeb
August 2026
Last month’s email featured snippets from the recently concluded World Cup and highlighted the many things international visitors enjoyed about the United States; Buc-ee’s, Costco, Chipotle, ranch dressing and the best part…their love of our beautiful country and our warm hospitality. The play on the field also inspired many Americans to tune into soccer, some for the first time. The numbers were record-setting, the final match between Spain and Argentina drew an estimated record 66 million viewers. And soccer superstars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, and Erling Haaland became U.S. celebrities. They joined the sports talk show airwaves alongside LeBron James, who signed with his fourth NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers, and Tarik Skubal, who broke Detroit Tigers fans’ hearts when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
One name that has nothing to do with soccer, baseball, or basketball, and is likely unfamiliar to most, is Jacob Tsimerman, a 38-year-old math whiz. He was featured in The Wall Street Journal last week after winning the Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious awards given in the field of mathematics. Get this… he won the award for his key research in o-minimality techniques in relation to arithmetic and complex algebraic geometry, as well as his breakthroughs on the Andre-Oort conjecture (involving Shimura varieties) and Griffiths conjecture. Whew… that is a mouthful. If you are still reading this, you might be wondering where we are going with this.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Princeton educated Tsimerman decided to take a leave from his job at the University of Toronto and take his talents to California to join the company OpenAI as a researcher. It turns out that he has long worried about the potential consequences of artificial intelligence and has even written papers about the immense threats it could pose. But due to his worries about the dangers of AI, he’s now pivoting to work on AI safety. He believes he can apply rigorous mathematical reasoning to better understand how AI systems make decisions and how we can get them to get along with each other…and us humans.
And that’s where our optimism comes in. We have long maintained in this piece that technology and innovation will continue to evolve and help societies across the globe. They have already contributed to powerful advances in education, healthcare, and nearly every field imaginable. We believe this progress will continue, but we also understand that there is a justified fear that unchecked AI could hurt rather than help us. Our glass-half-full mindset is buoyed by people like Jacob Tsimerman…one of the smartest mathematicians in the world…who will be working diligently on safety measures for AI.
Because brilliant minds like his are working to keep AI safe, we can go back to watching sports. In less than a year, the Women’s World Cup begins!
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