On September 11, twenty-five Fields Medalists, including Terence Tao, published an emergency statement titled "A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics." The statement does not primarily warn that AI is "doing math," but criticizes the practice of AI labs using unsolved mathematical problems as capability benchmarks.
What the statement argues
According to the authors, some research groups and companies are driven by competition and leaderboard incentives to demonstrate model performance on long-standing unsolved problems that traditionally require lengthy, peer-reviewed proofs. The mathematical community has established procedures for certifying new results; the signatories say those procedures are at risk when emphasis shifts to "who solves it first".
Concrete example and figures
The statement cites a report that OpenAI ran roughly ten thousand agents and used about 130 billion tokens against open problems resembling the Millennium Prize problems, and subsequently claimed victory. The mathematicians contend that massive, rapid experimental runs and announcements of solutions within hours undermine deeper understanding and rigorous verification.
Why this matters
The statement highlights that there is no mandatory mechanism forcing labs to follow the norms of mathematical practice — no compute gate, no enforcement, and no formal penalty for bypassing community verification. As a result, a discipline that for decades has relied on careful certification of proofs now faces the prospect of purported solutions appearing publicly without the traditional community vetting.
Conclusion
The Fields Medalists framed their intervention as a polite, urgent appeal: they have articulated rules and concerns, but there is no guarantee other actors will comply. AI labs continue training and deploying models while competitive incentives and rapid publication remain primary motivators. The signatories stress the importance of traditional mathematical verification and warn that current incentives risk undermining scientific credibility.
