Resistance is becoming increasingly public. In June, mathematicians published the Leiden Declaration, a set of principles for the responsible use of AI in mathematics that has been endorsed by the International Mathematical Union and signed by nearly 3,900 people, an increase of nearly 500 people since I last covered it in mid-August. It urges policymakers, governments, the media, and other groups to not buy into “the hype” created by companies who “overstate the capabilities of their products.” As the Millennium Prize controversy raged, OpenAI withdrew its sponsorship of an undergraduate mathematics hackathon at Caltech following fierce opposition decrying the intrusion of corporate interests and worries the event would create a deluge of low-quality “slop mathematics.”
