Terence Tao and 24 Other Fields Medalists Sign Letter Accusing AI Labs of Destroying Mathematics
RobertWKemp · x · 2026-10-10
Terence Tao and 24 other Fields Medalists have signed a letter accusing AI companies of undermining mathematics, with much of the criticism aimed at OpenAI.
Key points:
- The letter warns of a "general threat to intellectual work," saying AI labs treat math problems like benchmarks to brute-force
- Solutions are announced in a rush, leaving no time for proper writeups or citing prior work, raising "severe attribution and plagiarism questions"
- It references an OpenAI offer to put a math professor's name on a Navier-Stokes proof, on the condition that he abandon his coauthor
The letter marks a collective protest by the math community against frontier AI labs' research ethics.
Related event: Hundreds of Mathematicians Warn AI Is Destroying Math Research(2 posts)→
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