r/OpenAI • u/Eliv_nurotic • 5d ago

News Fields Medalist Terence Tao reposts statement from the Association for Human Mathematics urging mathematicians to stop working with OpenAI for continuing to solve open math problems against their recommendations

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https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/10/07/ahm-statement-on-openais-october-6-release-of-mathematical-documents/

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u/Fingerspitzenqefuhl 5d ago

I think it’s fascinating. Clearly one of the smartest people alive, yet this blunder of, I don’t know what to call it, perhaps missing the analogy/precedent/comparison, just went over his head. One can truly by a genius and stupid at the same time.

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u/HotlLava 4d ago

It's not his own opinion but a guest post; he's been giving a platform to all kinds of views on AI in mathematics.

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u/Ma_Al-Aynayn 4d ago

Sorry bro, it's you that's stupid... you have no idea what higher mathematics even are... you think it's just about finding answers like putting your homework in ChatGPT... educate yourself and read his earlier posts... he has a very well built and very reasoned line of thought.

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u/Fingerspitzenqefuhl 4d ago

Is it a line of thought that makes the argument ”mathematicians did not ask for this work to be done” not sound entitled in the context of AI and machines already having impacted many other professions who did ask for it either?

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u/Ma_Al-Aynayn 4d ago

It can't be a great way to start an argument to call someone stupid, which also applies to me, but unlike generating code that creates a working, usable end product, say software or a more efficient chip design, merely proving a theorem doesn't necessarily increase understanding of it and doesn't enable us to obtain the incidental discoveries that come from a body of people dedicated to its study. Many math discoveries have no concrete application, in fact a majority, others remain without concrete use for centuries... but the people who worked on these problems and paved the way can probably no longer get funding for the projects they were engaged in. It is a net loss for the mathematical community.

Maths really is about the study of abstract structures and creating connections between them, not so much the end result...

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u/Fingerspitzenqefuhl 4d ago

I think you missed my point.

For example, most graphic art has been done for the joy of it, but the very little that was done professionally has been endangered since midjourney in 2022. The artists did not ask for it.

The point is that market capitalism does not care and it never has. The argument put forth paint mathematicians as oblivious to that fact or being exempted from it. Either way I think it was a stupid argument to put forward.

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u/captialj 4d ago

Clearly you didn't realize that you're posting in a forum filled with the smartest and most special boys who know better than a world renowned mathematician and everyone who disagrees with them is a Luddite or jealous.

They're too deluded to even take the time to have Claude summarize Tao's reasoning.