
The Proof in the Code
How a Truth Machine Is Transforming Math and AI
Kevin Hartnett(Author)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 20. July 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-374-62005-9 (ISBN)
Description
It began as an obscure bug-checking program at Microsoft Research developed by a lone computer engineer named Leo de Moura. Then an unlikely crew of mathematical misfits caught wind of it and began to adopt it with messianic zeal. Their goal was to create a truth machine that could provide the rarest of all commodities in life: a complete, 100 percent guarantee that something is true. Its name: Lean.
As the movement grew and strengthened the program's capabilities, it drew in two of the world's most prominent mathematicians: Peter Scholze and Terence Tao. Google DeepMind, Meta AI, and other tech firms started using the program to supercharge computer reasoning. Now it's remaking the multi-thousand-year history of how mathematicians work, collaborate, and assess truth, while charting a new path in the march toward machine intelligence.
In The Proof in the Code, Kevin Hartnett tells the definitive story of the birth and rise of Lean, and how a growing movement is transforming the enterprise of mathematics and ushering in a new era of human-computer collaboration. An engrossing, character-driven narrative filled with insights about the future of math, computers, and AI, this brilliant work of journalism from one of the world's leading math writers offers a profound answer to the question: Can computers reveal universal truths?
As the movement grew and strengthened the program's capabilities, it drew in two of the world's most prominent mathematicians: Peter Scholze and Terence Tao. Google DeepMind, Meta AI, and other tech firms started using the program to supercharge computer reasoning. Now it's remaking the multi-thousand-year history of how mathematicians work, collaborate, and assess truth, while charting a new path in the march toward machine intelligence.
In The Proof in the Code, Kevin Hartnett tells the definitive story of the birth and rise of Lean, and how a growing movement is transforming the enterprise of mathematics and ushering in a new era of human-computer collaboration. An engrossing, character-driven narrative filled with insights about the future of math, computers, and AI, this brilliant work of journalism from one of the world's leading math writers offers a profound answer to the question: Can computers reveal universal truths?
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-374-62005-9 (9780374620059)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2026
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
€20.49
Available for download
Person
Kevin Hartnett is a math and technology writer whose work has been published widely in outlets including Quanta Magazine, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, WIRED, Nautilus, and Scientific American. He was previously the senior writer at Quanta Magazine covering mathematics and computer science. His work has been collected in multiple volumes of the Best Writing on Mathematics series from Princeton University Press. From 2013 to 2016 he wrote "Brainiac," a weekly column for The Boston Globe's Ideas section. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine.