Institute for Advanced Study calls for equitable model access

OpenAI released more than 370 mathematical results on Tuesday, spanning algebra, theoretical computer science and mathematical logic. The findings follow OpenAI’s reported solution last month of the Navier-Stokes equation, a long-standing problem that carried a $1 million prize offered to whoever cracked it.

The release drew immediate criticism from mathematicians who argued that frontier AI labs should not be testing the most advanced mathematical problems using proprietary AI systems the broader field cannot reach. The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, an independent group of mathematical experts, said in a statement that it does not endorse the practice.

“It is now the case that AI can output mathematical arguments in situations without the human who prompted it being able to understand the arguments, verify them, or take responsibility for them,” the Institute for Advanced Study statement said. “We believe that human understanding of mathematics remains of paramount importance. How, in this new era, can we work towards a new paradigm that includes human understanding of mathematics as part of responsible scholarly output?”

OpenAI said it would work with the Institute for Advanced Study to give “mathematicians a voice in how we move forward.” The company did not indicate that it would stop testing its AI models on advanced mathematical problems.

In an interview with the New York Times, Tristan Buckmaster, a New York University mathematician who was working on the Navier-Stokes problem, said mathematicians who prompted AI models to solve equations could be providing information that helped the models reach results. “There’s likely to be a bunch of results where they take someone’s work and then take it to completion,” Buckmaster said.

The advisory board has also asked AI labs to grant “equitable access” to their AI models to the global mathematics community. “The use of proprietary internal models by AI labs to do mathematical research risks creating a two-tier system where labs outrun the rest of the field, effectively alienating the mathematical community from its own discipline,” the group wrote.

Experts in the field say they worry OpenAI is not doing the due diligence required to vet the results.