Terry Tao joins 25 Fields Medalists in declaration slamming AI firms' math benchmarks as severely misaligned

ctjlewis · x · 2026-09-12

Terence Tao published a blog post, A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics, announcing he is among 25 initial signatories — all Fields Medalists — to a joint declaration on AI and mathematics, with coverage in The Economist.

Key points:

LLMs' math capabilities have improved dramatically in recent months, to the point of solving major open problems across fields;
Yet the AI industry's push to use hard math problems as benchmarks is detrimental to the science of mathematics and its community: the goals of AI companies and mathematicians are severely misaligned;
The authors frame this as part of a broader alignment problem affecting other scientific and creative professions, and society at large;
The post recalls how famous problems serve as landmarks for research mathematics, whose value lies in understanding the basic structures of shapes, numbers, and natural phenomena rather than serving as a scoring target;
Citing urgency, the signatories skipped the longer consultative process used for the Leiden declaration and released early, inviting further signatures.

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Terry Tao joins 25 Fields Medalists in declaration slamming AI firms' math benchmarks as severely misaligned

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