About 25 laureates with the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, signed an open letter warning about a possible "destructive effect" of artificial intelligence in mathematical research. The warning came just days after OpenAI announced, on Tuesday, that one of its AI models solved, in less than four days, a mathematical equation over a century old, belonging to the seven "Millennium Problems" selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000.
The Australian mathematician Tristan Buckmaster publicly questioned the similarities between his own work, prior to the OpenAI project, and the results obtained by the AI model, which generated controversy about the originality of artificial intelligence's discoveries.
In the open letter, the medalists acknowledged that AI "offers the potential to strengthen and accelerate the study and understanding of mathematics," but stated that "mathematics as a profession will have to adapt to these changes in various ways." According to the researchers, it is "the decisions of humans who control this technology" that will determine whether the effects will be beneficial or destructive.
In light of these concerns, the 25 medalists are calling on major AI companies to "urgently respond" to these issues. Since last year, several companies have been reporting significant advances in the world of mathematics, but the resolution of the Navier-Stokes equation announced by OpenAI is considered the most remarkable, with a one-million-dollar prize associated with its resolution.
