AI OpenAI OpenAI wants to consult elite mathematicians about how to not fumble again ‘The group will advise on the review and communication of emerging results.’ ‘The group will advise on the review and communication of emerging results.’ by Robert Hart Sep 23, 2026, 12:17 AM UTC Link Share Gift Bloomberg via Getty Images Robert Hart is a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and a Senior Tarbell Fellow.
Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes . After turning a string of spectacular mathematical results into a reputational crisis , OpenAI is consulting human mathematicians to help it figure out a less disastrous path forward. On Monday, the company announced a new independent panel of mathematicians tasked with advising it and other AI companies on their interactions with mathematical research and the wider mathematics community, including how new results are presented and released.
Its abrupt arrival caught many mathematicians by surprise. Researchers told The Verge the group is a good first step, but many said they were left with basic questions about what it will actually do, how much influence it will have, and whether OpenAI will actually listen to it, as well as concerns over whether such a small group of prominent researchers can represent the wider mathematical community.
The nine-member group is stacked with who researchers described to The Verge as celebrities in the field, drawn from institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, with multiple Fields Medals and MacArthur “genius grants” among them. It will be hosted by Princeton, New Jersey’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), one of the world’s most revered centers of mathematical research and the former intellectual home of figures including Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and J.
Robert Oppenheimer. “The other fundamental fact is that our overarching aim is to represent as well as we possibly can the interests of the mathematical community.” OpenAI said the group, called the Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (AGMAI), will operate independently, with the freedom to offer advice the company has not requested, publicly comment on its impact on mathematics, and make its advice public, though it did not provide details on what this may entail.
It appears that the group will be granted early access to OpenAI’s research in order to fulfill its task. Members will not be paid by OpenAI and the group can change its membership as it sees fit, OpenAI said. “Its value depends on its members being able to exercise their own judgement and challenge ours,” the company said.
“The group will advise on the review and communication of emerging results: they will help OpenAI assess their significance, advise on how to coordinate their dissemination, and advise on academic and professional standards of mathematical research. It will also advise on how our tools can support mathematical research and learning.
” Related OpenAI just wants to win OpenAI’s sly mathematical breakthrough sends a chill through academia The AI takeover of mathematics has begun For all the emphasis on independence, it remains unclear how much influence the group will actually have or why it was formed in the first place. Simon Machado, a researcher at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, said the whole thing seemed “shrouded in mystery” and he questioned how the nine members were selected.
The group’s bare-bones website says it “came together after OpenAI approached some of its members about establishing an external advisory board,” but that, following discussions with the company, the mathematicians decided to launch an independent group instead and invite others to join. It’s not clear which members were initially approached by OpenAI or how the remaining members were selected.
In a blog post published Tuesday, advisory group member Martin Hairer elaborated on the group’s origins and the thinking behind it, responding to what he called a “torrent of misinformation” surrounding its formation. “It is obvious that AI has already had a profound impact on mathematical research and raises numerous questions of correct attribution of ideas, priority, human understanding of ideas, etc.
,” he wrote, adding that there is no sense in the community “taking a hard ‘ostrich’ approach of simply ignoring the AI labs and refusing to talk to them on principle.” While acknowledging that the group was formed in response to an approach from OpenAI, Hairer stressed that not all of its members had been contacted by the company and that the resulting organization is “genuinely independent of OpenAI and any other of the so-called ‘frontier’ AI labs.
” Beyond “obvious confidentiality requirements,” he said members have not signed any restrictive agreements governing what they can say publicly, adding that they receive no financial compensation and are relying on the IAS for technical support. “The other fundamental fact is that our overarching aim is to represent as well as we possibly can the interests of the mathematical community,” wrote Hairer, a professor of mathematics at Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
While noting that the group is hardly a representative sample of the community, he said he is “absolutely certain that all nine of us take this extremely seriously and are acting in good faith.” However the members were selected, the group currently comprises an elite cadre of academic mathematicians. The small size raises further questions about whether the group has the breadth of expertise required to evaluate everything coming its way, given the highly specialized skills and knowledge required to operate at the frontiers of mathematics.