OpenAI Launches Independent Math Advisory Group at Institute for Advanced Study

On Monday, OpenAI announced a new independent advisory group hosted at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Called The Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, the group is meant to give mathematicians more input into the company’s math-oriented research.

“This group will serve as a bridge to the mathematical community and broader public, giving mathematicians a voice in how we move forward,” the post reads.

The announcement comes after the abrupt publication of a solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem. As part of the announcement of the new group, OpenAI also claims that the same internal model has resolved more than 100 additional open problems across most areas of mathematics.

Many prominent mathematicians have taken issue with the frenzied pace of those results. Earlier this month, twenty-five Fields Medal-winning mathematicians signed an open letter arguing that AI labs are threatening their intellectual work as they seek to one-up each other with solutions to famous math problems.

True to its name, OpenAI’s new group will mostly serve in an advisory capacity, assessing the significance of new results and coordinating their release. While members won’t be paid, they can offer unsolicited advice, can go public with their views, and control their own membership, giving them a measure of independence from the company.

However, the group won’t be given leeway to slow down or redirect OpenAI’s ongoing mathematical research. As the blog post puts it, “the group will not be responsible for advising us on how to pace our internal progress on mathematics.”

The Institute for Advanced Study emphasized this point in its own announcement. “Although we will give advice, we do not have decision making power at any AI company, and the responsibility for the decisions made by any company will rest with that company,” said the institute in a press release.

Nine prominent mathematicians have been named as initial members of the group. Notably, only one of the members — IAS’s Camillo de Lellis — also signed the Fields Medalists’ letter.