Following OpenAI's announced solution to a Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize variant, thousands of mathematicians signed declarations like the Leiden Declaration and Math and AI letters seeking to protect research norms, while others opposed events such as the Caltech Mathathon. Economists and technologists pushed back, arguing mathematicians should adapt rather than resist AI's growing role. Po-Shen Loh's essay examines these objections and questions whether human mathematicians remain necessary.
terrytao.wordpress.com
· 2026-09-20
OpenAI has pulled its financial backing of Caltech's Mathathon competition following tensions with mathematicians. Organizers told Gizmodo they don't expect the withdrawal to substantially disrupt the event.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-12
Twenty-five Fields Medal winners signed an open letter warning that AI labs, especially OpenAI, are racing to claim credit for solving famous math problems without proper verification or acknowledgment of human collaborators. The dispute intensified after NYU's Tristan Buckmaster alleged OpenAI pressured him to omit credit to an Anthropic-affiliated collaborator, and OpenAI subsequently pulled its sponsorship from a CalTech math event following backlash from researchers there.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-11
Caltech is organizing a 40-hour event called Mathathon, running October 30 to November 1, where about 100 teams will use frontier AI models with over $2 million in compute credits to tackle open mathematical conjectures. Teams will present their findings to leading mathematicians, who will judge their understanding and rigor, with prizes awarded initially and again later once results are independently verified by the math community.
mathathonchallenge.com
· 2026-09-07
NASA and Caltech researchers are developing a large, flower-shaped spacecraft called a starshade that would fly in formation with a space telescope to block a star's glare. By blotting out starlight, the device would let astronomers directly observe faint, Earth-sized planets orbiting that star.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-08-25
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