Independent maths group sets out OpenAI advice role

The group said that recent AI progress had put mathematics at a moment it described as historically important, and that this had created urgent questions about the field’s long-term future. It said its role was to advise AI companies on their relationship with mathematical research and mathematicians, including how results should be presented and released.

It said it was independent of any AI company, that its members were unpaid, and that it would publish its recommendations online. It also said it would offer advice to any AI company whose models were likely to affect mathematics, while making clear that each company remained responsible for its own decisions.

The announcement named nine members: François Charles, Camillo De Lellis, Timothy Gowers, Martin Hairer, Nikhil Srivastava, Ulrike Tillmann, Ravi Vakil, Edward Witten and Melanie Matchett Wood. It said the group had been formed after OpenAI approached some of them about creating an outside board, and that they then chose to create an independent group and add others.

The group said its immediate task was to advise OpenAI on how to coordinate the release of a large number of significant mathematical results. It said OpenAI reported that those results had been produced by its internal model, and it invited the mathematical community to send views through a form for use in its recommendations.