OpenAI pledges $5 million to mathematicians after backlash over its AI-generated results

OpenAI is putting $5 million into a new Simons Foundation program to help mathematicians check and build on AI-produced results, after weeks of anger in the field over how the company released its own math work.

OpenAI said on X on Oct 15 that the money will pay for workshops, conferences and special programs, and that foundation-backed researchers will get access to its models and computing. The Simons Foundation said the effort totals $15 million, with Anthropic and OpenAI as partners. OpenAI's post drew more than 5,500 likes.

The backlash began last month, when some mathematicians said OpenAI's Navier-Stokes result leaned on unpublished work, The Independent reported. It grew after the company dropped hundreds of results from an unreleased model at once. "If OpenAI wanted to destroy the mathematical community, this would be a great way to go about it," Cambridge professor Henry Wilton said.

On X, one user joked: "Mathematicians said, OpenAI, you can solve all the math problems you want, as long as you give us money." The New York Times ran a profile of Terence Tao on Oct 16 under the headline "I'm on a War Footing."