Mathematician: many labs fund "math theorems" out of their marketing budget
AlexKontorovich · x · 2026-08-24
Responding to criticism of how AI labs publicize math results, mathematician Alex Kontorovich revealed that in quite a number of labs, the funding for "math theorems" lives inside the marketing budget—because theorems, on their own, are only valuable to other mathematicians. Those who dislike this funding model are welcome to start their own lab and do it differently.
He also offered a pragmatist take: having the world's best minds interrupt their research twice a week to teach calculus to 18-year-olds is not obviously the best way to support research math.
More from Companies & People
- Are we building too many LLMs? Innovation slowing, need focus on breakthroughs — DavidLinthicum · 2026-08-25
- TCS Partners with Porsche in $1.5B Deal and Acquires MHP Consulting — himanshustwts · 2026-08-25
- AI Buying Power Quietly Shifts: CISOs Are Taking Over from CTOs — BenBajarin · 2026-08-24
- Former OpenAI Researcher Andrew Ilyas Joins Perplexity as Research Lead — inductionheads · 2026-08-24
- Opinion: Nvidia + Open Ecosystem is the real Rebel Alliance — annbordetsky · 2026-08-24
- Anthropic Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Guide 2026 Leaked — thedealdirector · 2026-08-24