AI companies sponsoring student math events is no worse than free compute for professors
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-09-11
Responding to criticism over Mathathon accepting AI company sponsorship, Scott Kominers adds context:
- What sponsors get: funding and compute credits buy AI companies goodwill, visibility, and potential future customers — worth recognizing, but not new.
- Precedents: companies have long given professors 'free' compute for paper acknowledgments, and firms recruiting math talent have sponsored IMO, HMMT, ISEF, and even the MIT Mystery Hunt.
- His point: scrutiny of such arrangements is fine, but accepting support isn't inherently problematic — events cost money, especially compute-heavy ones.
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