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OpenAI’s feud with mathematicians is only escalating

3 d ago

**Twenty-five Fields Medal-winning mathematicians signed an open letter warning that AI labs are threatening intellectual work by racing to solve famous problems without proper attribution or verification.** The letter, reported this week, follows NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster accusing OpenAI of pressuring him to not credit a collaborator from Anthropic for solving an important math problem, and questioning whether OpenAI used their Codex work to produce its own proof over a marathon weekend. OpenAI subsequently withdrew sponsorship of a CalTech math event after researcher criticism. The signatories argue that while AI solving outstanding challenges could benefit humanity, rushed announcements leave no time for writeups, isolating new methods, or citing prior work—raising severe attribution and plagiarism questions. They warn that without mathematicians integrating AI-conceived ideas into the mathematical canon, the human transmission chain is lost. The letter follows the June Leiden Declaration, which offered recommendations for mathematicians, institutions, and policymakers grappling with LLM proofs. The mathematicians stress that the value of math lies not just in proofs and credit, but in the intellectual superstructure that nourishes students and integrates ideas into civilization. They caution that the issues facing mathematics—attribution, secrecy, and the threat to open research culture—are issues all scientific and creative professions will soon face. As frontier labs spend tens of millions using LLMs to beat original researchers to proofs, the dynamic incentivizes secrecy and paranoia among mathematicians. The letter concludes: "We must not lose sight of what that work was meant to achieve in the first place."