The Simons Foundation announced Oct. 15 a $15 million package of funding and resources to help mathematicians assess AI-produced work and decide how to use new tools. The initiative combines commitments from the foundation, OpenAI and Anthropic; the full amount is not described as a grant pool.
The foundation will consider proposals for workshops and related projects where mathematicians can examine AI-assisted work and discuss standards for using it. OpenAI pledged $5 million and will provide models and computing resources. OpenAI and Anthropic will make tools and computing available to a select group of researchers supported by the foundation. The announcement builds on the foundation’s mathematics funding over several decades, which has included support for Lean, a language used to check mathematical proofs.
OpenAI said its Oct. 6 release presented mathematical work generated by an internal model. The company posted the work on GitHub, including computer-checkable versions of many proofs in Lean. Its repository says the manuscripts are at different stages of verification and warns that some without Lean formalizations may contain errors.
At an Oct. 8 seminar hosted by the Société Mathématique de France (SMF), 2022 Fields Medal winner Hugo Duminil-Copin discussed the release. Le Monde reported that 16 or more of its questions concerned areas connected to his research. The newspaper also reported his remark: “They have annihilated my field of research.”
The debate also raises questions about how mathematicians enter the profession. François Charles, director of the Department of Mathematics and Applications at École normale supérieure, told AFP that AI is changing entry into the field and doctoral training, though he was not pessimistic about scientific progress. Stéphane Mallat, a 2025 recipient of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Gold Medal, told AFP that mathematics remains important for teaching and clear thinking.
The foundation’s targeted grant call for Math+AI Institutes is one part of the wider initiative, not the full $15 million package. Applications close Dec. 1, 2026, at noon ET; the foundation lists Dec. 31 for notifications and March 1, 2027, as the earliest award start. EconoTimes previously covered OpenAI’s $5 million pledge to support mathematicians reviewing AI research.
