Hundreds of Mathematicians Sign Open Letter Against Caltech's AI Mathathon

On Sept 10, math researcher Quasilocal launched an open letter opposing Caltech's Mathathon hackathon scheduled for Oct 30. The event is organized by undergraduates: 100 teams will have 40 hours to attack open math problems using frontier LLM prompts, producing AI-generated "Lean certificates," with over $2 million in compute credits from Anthropic and OpenAI. Signatures grew from nearly 500 on Sept 10 to 700+ on Sept 11, including four Fields medalists. Signatories argue the event is effectively advertising disguised as research and that the $2M sponsorship amounts to research misconduct; critics inside and outside mathematics have pushed back forcefully.

Confirmed

• The letter circulated as a Google doc, signed by PhD students, postdocs and faculty from Caltech, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Cambridge and others, plus senior researchers at the Rényi Institute and four Fields medalists.
• The Mathathon is undergrad-organized, with 100 teams, a 40-hour limit, LLM prompting on open problems, Lean formalized certificates, and over $2M in compute credits from Anthropic and OpenAI.
• Core allegations: companies using massive compute to scoop open problems and publish first, "destroying valuable mathematical research directions for advertising," and flooding the research ecosystem with junk results; the $2M sponsorship is labeled research misconduct.
• The letter also warns students that participation could damage their future academic reputations.
• Mathematician Elliot Glazer publicly slammed the letter, saying 1500 scholars (his figure, inconsistent with other counts in the posts) decided to ruin a new three-day event for undergraduates, and that lines like "it's just an event" or "they can learn these skills elsewhere" could excuse any spiteful behavior.

Unconfirmed

• The initiator's handle appears as both Quasilocal and Quasilierra across posts; exact spelling unverified.
• Glazer's "1500 scholars" figure and the referenced "Navier-Stokes incident" appear only in his comments, with no primary-source corroboration.

Why it matters

• The episode exposes strong resistance within mathematics to AI companies entering pure-math research: LLM-scale "scooping" of open problems could reshape existing norms of priority and credit.
• Signature growth from 500 to 700+ with Fields medalist backing shows real resonance among top mathematicians.
• The debate extends beyond mathematics and is far from one-sided: economist Ben Golub mocked the letter's logic—summarizing it as "helping young people access this technology is callous, because we might stigmatize them"; commenter Rabadash2 rejected the inference that "research math no one can read is worthless" and mocked non-mathematicians weighing in; Glazer accused boycotters of suppressing a student event. The divide centers on whether AI in math research is opportunity or stigma.

2026-09-10 ~ 2026-09-12 · 9 related posts

Full story(7 episodes)→

• Episode 1: Caltech Hosts World's First AI Math Hackathon with Anthropic and OpenAI(2026-09-05, 23 posts)
• Episode 2: Caltech to Host World's First Research-Grade Math Hackathon(2026-09-07, 4 posts)
• Episode 3: Hundreds of Mathematicians Sign Open Letter Against Caltech's AI Mathathon(2026-09-10, 9 posts)
• Episode 4: OpenAI Pulls Caltech Mathathon Sponsorship After Mathematicians' Open Letter(2026-09-11, 13 posts)
• Episode 5: Caltech's AI Math Competition Mathathon Revamps Rules After Backlash(2026-09-11, 4 posts)
• Episode 6: Mathathon Organizers Redesign Event After Math Community Backlash(2026-09-11, 2 posts)
• Episode 7: Math Community Split Over AI's Role in Mathematical Research(2026-09-11, 3 posts)

• [source] Nearly 500 mathematicians sign open letter slamming Mathathon over $2M in Anthropic and OpenAI AI credits — ctjlewis · 2026-09-10
• Caltech mathematicians boycott AI math hackathon backed by $2M from Anthropic and OpenAI — zetalyrae · 2026-09-10
• Mathematicians publish open letter about the Mathathon with signatories from top universities — zetalyrae · 2026-09-10
• [source] Mathematicians Push Back Against AI Lab's 'Mathathon' Compute-Heavy Paper Scooping — _lewtun · 2026-09-10
• 500 Mathematicians Sign Open Letter Against Caltech Mathathon, Sparking Debate — Rabadash2 · 2026-09-11
• Economist mocks mathematicians' open letter against AI Mathathon: 'really something' — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-09-11
• Mathematicians' open letter threatens student organizers' reputations to cancel Caltech Mathathon backed by $2M from Anthropic and OpenAI — ignite_intelligence · 2026-09-11
• [source] 700+ signatories, 4 Fields medallists blast AI firms' 'Mathathon' as research misconduct — sytelus · 2026-09-11
• Elliot Glazer slams 1,500 academics for ruining a novel 3-day undergrad experience — ctjlewis · 2026-09-12