Mathematicians around the world are very angry with Sam Altman’s OpenAI
OpenAI researcher Dan Roberts said on Thursday (September 10) that the company would no longer sponsor the event. The disagreement intensified after OpenAI announced that its AI agents had solved the Navier-Stokes equations, a set of mathematical equations that have been studied for around 90 years and are used to describe how liquids and gases move.
The dispute comes as AI companies increasingly use large language models (LLMs) to tackle difficult research problems, according to a Business Insider report. Notably, the ChatGPT maker was one of the companies supporting Caltech’s “math hackathon”, where participants use AI tools to work on open mathematical problems. AI companies can announce that their models have solved difficult theoretical problems, while human mathematicians are then left to check the work, develop proper proofs and determine whether the claims are correct, according to the academics. “We recognize that the rapid progress of AI in mathematics is disruptive,” Roberts said. The event, described as a “mathathon”, is designed to give young mathematicians a chance to use AI tools while working on difficult research questions. Its goal is to “responsibly use AI tools to augment human understanding of mathematics.”, according to the event’s application page.
OpenAI has pulled its support for a Caltech mathematics event after a group of current and former mathematicians criticised the growing use of AI in mathematical research. The mathematicians’ main concern is not simply the use of AI in mathematics. They are also questioning how AI companies present their claimed breakthroughs and what happens after those claims are made. Dan Roberts, OpenAI’s research lead, addressed the issue on X after the criticism. “We’re looking to engage with the math community more on the best way to integrate this technology and communicate its impacts.