Mathematicians Hate AI. They Can’t Quit It
Powerful AI models have created an existential risk to the field, but researchers can’t stop relying on them because they’re too useful.
Mathematicians are finding it difficult to part ways with artificial intelligence tools, even though some feel uneasy about their usage. Jonathan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University, has been using OpenAI's coding agent Codex to refine his research papers. When he had time to engage in mathematical work, this tool helped him understand the logical steps the AI might have taken to arrive at a solution.
Buckmaster claimed that OpenAI copied his approach, sparking a controversy about AI's role in mathematics. This led OpenAI to investigate and remove the claim that Buckmaster's prompts influenced their system. Other mathematicians, like Andreas Thom, have also expressed concerns. OpenAI acknowledged that they did not feed his 2019 paper into their training data; however, Thom remains skeptical.
The situation raises questions about how credit is assigned when machines handle complex tasks. Concerns over AI's potential misuse, such as incorporating a mathematician's work without proper attribution, have led some to call for stricter oversight.
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