On Friday, two dozen top mathematicians issued a stark warning: AI could ruin the foundations of maths. Earlier that week OpenAI said it had untangled a fiendishly hard problem related to the Navier-Stokes equations, which are useful for modelling how air flows over aircraft wings and plasma circulates inside stars. New knowledge was unlocked. But was something lost in the process? One of the signatories drew a comparison: airdropping someone on the summit of Mount Everest is very different from climbing it.

This matters beyond the rarefied world of advanced maths. In reading—as in maths—15-year-olds are testing at levels of 14-year-olds a decade ago. That’s according to the latest findings from PISA across the 35 rich countries that take part in the tests. Some may argue that this doesn’t matter, because AI will help them as grown-ups. This line of reasoning could not be more wrong, says our leader.

New on “The Weekend Intelligence”: listen to the first episode of our deeply reported series on Tommy Robinson, the British far-right figure changing how Britons see their country—and now shaping how many Americans do, too.

What to expect in the week ahead:

▸ Orders are set to open on Monday for what is expected to be Africa’s biggest-ever public offering. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, unveiled plans to raise around $1.6bn by listing his Nigerian oil refinery on the country’s stock exchange. The offering values the business at $49bn. Mr Dangote hopes to attract millions of Africans as shareholders, by setting the minimum investment at just ten shares, or about $4.

▸ The Federal Reserve will make a decision on interest rates on Wednesday. Markets overwhelmingly expect the central bank to raise them. Kevin Warsh, the Fed chairman, recently warned that prices were still too high, and consumer-price data last week showed inflation is not abating. With Donald Trump demanding lower rates, however, Mr Warsh may have to choose between pleasing the president and preserving his inflation-fighting credibility. 

▸ The Bank of Japan wraps up a busy week for central banks on Friday. Markets expect it to raise interest rates too, not least because America’s Treasury Department has tied its interventions supporting the yen to “decisive” steps by the bank to tackle the currency’s weakness. Inflation figures also come out a few hours before the decision is announced.