Twenty-five Fields Medal-winning mathematicians signed an open letter warning that AI labs are threatening mathematical scholarship by racing to solve famous problems without proper attribution or verification. The letter followed accusations from NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster that OpenAI pressured him against crediting an Anthropic-affiliated collaborator on a major math proof, and speculation that the company may have used data from his Codex sessions to produce its own competing proof. OpenAI subsequently withdrew its sponsorship of a math event at Caltech after facing criticism from researchers there.
The signatories argued that AI-generated solutions are often announced hastily, without proper writeups or citation of prior work, raising serious concerns about attribution and plagiarism, and warned that the dynamic could push mathematicians toward secrecy rather than open collaboration. The letter followed a similar effort, the Leiden Declaration, published in June.
Separately, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview with Fortune’s Alyson Shontell that the company would not pursue an initial public offering in 2026, despite having filed confidentially for one. Altman said current safety concerns, including fallout from a recent security incident involving Hugging Face, made this an inopportune time to go public, adding that OpenAI would proceed only once the business and broader societal context around the technology felt ready.
