Fields Medalist Joins OpenAI, Warns AI Will Surpass Human Mathematicians in 2 Years
新智元 · wechat · 2026-08-02
2026 Fields Medalist Jacob Tsimerman announced he is taking a leave of absence to join OpenAI, sending shockwaves through the AI community. A former AI skeptic, his mind was changed as AI successively cracked long-standing mathematical conjectures. He predicts AI will surpass human mathematicians within two years.
- AI Safety Focus: Tsimerman plans to use mathematical methods to prove the controllability of AI agents. He believes modern AI systems are "grown" rather than "programmed," lacking deterministic guarantees, and the rigorous tradition of mathematical proofs can bridge this gap.
- Mathematical Community's Warning: Fellow Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers also expressed his unease after witnessing AI solve problems he had pondered, predicting AI will eventually outperform humans in almost all mathematical aspects.
- The Leiden Declaration: Around 3,000 scholars (including Terence Tao) have signed the declaration, advocating for transparency, integrity, human authorship, and research autonomy in mathematics against the disruptive tide of AI.
Related event: Fields Medalist Jacob Tsimerman to Join OpenAI(2 posts)→
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