Fields Medalist Jacob Tsimerman says he is joining OpenAI’s safety team
APPSO · wechat · 2026-07-24
Jacob Tsimerman, the newly minted Fields Medalist, said he is moving to OpenAI’s safety team and has already stopped taking new PhD students.
- The post frames his move as part of a broader migration of elite mathematicians into AI labs, where frontier companies have far more compute, fewer teaching/admin burdens, and much higher compensation.
- It also highlights his unusually stark view: he thinks AI could pose a serious threat to humanity, and says mathematics may not remain a stable career in its current form.
- The thread connects his move to a wider trend: researchers like Ken Ono joining AI math startups, universities losing talent, and OpenAI/Anthropic/DeepMind competing for problem-solvers who can help with formal verification, theorem proving, and AI safety.
Related event: Fields Medalist Jacob Tsimerman Joins OpenAI for AI Safety(9 posts)→
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