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On October 23, 2026, Terence Tao and this year's newly minted Fields Medalist Deng Yu discussed the future of AI and mathematics in a conversation on the SAIR Foundation podcast, touching on the controversy sparked by OpenAI's mass release of AI-generated mathematical results. Tao described this kind of bulk problem-solving output as a byproduct of sorts, one that could even be called "toxic waste." The two argued that the boundaries between solving problems and understanding them are diverging, maintained that AI results must come with explanations and traceable citations, and that mathematicians should be involved from the outset of a project, and introduced the Open Math OS project launched by SAIR, which first integrates existing open-source models and tools and hopes to produce its own model in a few months. On October 25, reports said OpenAI had released 722 mathematics papers at once, covering number theory, geometry, and theoretical computer science, claiming progress on problems including the Riemann hypothesis, Catalan's constant, and the Kakeya conjecture, without peer review; the reports also said Fields Medalist Hugo Duminil-Copin stated that 16 problems related to his research had been flattened by AI, and that some doctoral students faced having their research topics covered and their degrees affected.
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OpenAI Publishes 722 Mathematics Papers at Once, Mathematicians Worry Research Will Be Flattened by AIDevelopments
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Terence Tao and Deng Yu in conversation on the future of AI and mathematics
Source:TMTPost · AGI
Reports and discussion timeline
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Oct 25
Huxiu
OpenAI Publishes 722 Mathematics Papers at Once, Mathematicians Worry Research Will Be Flattened by AI
OpenAI published 722 mathematics papers at once, covering number theory, geometry, and theoretical computer science, claiming progress on problems such as the Riemann Hypothesis, Catalan's constant, and the Kakeya conjecture, without peer review. Fields Medalist Hugo Duminil-Copin said 16 problems related to his research had been flattened by AI, and some doctoral students face their topics being covered and their degrees affected. The article also mentions an Anthropic researcher claiming to have disproved the Jacobian conjecture, and Shing-Tung Yau leading the establishment of a mathematics and artificial intelligence laboratory alliance.
Oct 23
TMTPost · AGI
Terence Tao and Deng Yu in conversation: AI math results are "toxic waste," the problem lies in how they are released
Terence Tao and this year's newly minted Fields Medalist Deng Yu discussed on the SAIR Foundation podcast the controversy sparked by OpenAI's mass release of AI math results; Tao called such bulk problem-solving output a kind of byproduct, or even "toxic waste." The two proposed that the boundaries between problem-solving and understanding are diverging, argued that AI results must come with explanations and traceable citations, that mathematicians should be involved at project inception, and introduced the Open Math OS project launched by SAIR, which first integrates existing open-source models and tools and hopes to build its own model in a few months.