The Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence will serve as a bridge between OpenAI and the mathematical community, according to a company blog post. "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 weeks after the abrupt publication of a solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem, a famous open problem in mathematics. OpenAI now claims that the same internal model has resolved more than 100 additional open problems across most areas of mathematics.
However, the rapid pace of these results has drawn criticism from prominent mathematicians. Earlier this month, 25 Fields Medal-winning mathematicians signed an open letter arguing that AI labs are threatening their intellectual work as they compete to produce solutions to famous math problems.
The new group will mostly serve in an advisory capacity, assessing the significance of new results and coordinating their release. Members will not be paid, but they can offer unsolicited advice, go public with their views, and control their own membership, giving them a measure of independence from the company.
Importantly, the group will not have the authority to slow down or redirect OpenAI's ongoing mathematical research. As the blog post states, "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 press release. "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," the institute said.
Nine prominent mathematicians have been named as initial members of the group. Notably, only one of them — IAS's Camillo De Lellis — also signed the Fields Medalists' letter.