Top mathematicians are outraged by OpenAI’s methods
Unlock unlimited access to all our award-winning journalism, subscriber-only podcasts and newsletters Subscribe to The Economist Unlock unlimited access to all our award-winning journalism, subscriber-only podcasts and newsletters N ot since Socrates complained that the written word might make people lazy about remembering things has there been such an outpouring of academic angst against a new technology. In an open letter published on September 11th 25 Fields Medal winners—akin to Nobel laureates in the field of mathematics—said that ai could ruin the foundations of their subject. ai companies, they claimed, are solving mathematical problems merely to benchmark the strength of their models, rather than in a true spirit of intellectual inquiry. Doing so, they argue, is “detrimental to the science of mathematics, and to the mathematical community”. Its components dissolve once it has done its job 3 min read What works well in theory seems not to in practice 3 min read It will help the