Terence Tao and 24 Fields Medalists sign letter accusing AI labs of brute-forcing math
DanielWhiteson · x · 2026-09-13
Terence Tao and 24 other Fields Medalists signed an open letter accusing AI labs — pointing squarely at OpenAI — of treating math problems like brute-forceable benchmarks: "a general threat to intellectual work," rushed solutions without proper writeups or citations, raising "severe attribution and plagiarism questions." It also cites an OpenAI offer to put a professor's name on a Navier-Stokes proof if he dropped his coauthor. In the quoted take, kareemcarr reads the letter via a parable: math elites want a path through the jungle, not just the golden fruit — and a bird flying over the trees destabilizes the tribe's status order.
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