Is this the ‘mathocalypse’? Why OpenAI’s latest results dump has left mathematicians in shock

Earlier this week, OpenAI published a trove of hundreds of mathematical results it claimed could “push the frontier of human knowledge”. Produced largely by an unreleased artificial intelligence (AI) model, the 722 papers relate to 372 open problems covering everything from algebra and geometry to theoretical computer science.

Several papers have since been retracted or amended, but the sheer scale and form of the release – variously described as a drop, a dump, a carpet bombing and a mathocalypse – have sent shockwaves through the mathematical community.

Some papers claim significant advances on high-profile, long-standing problems including the Riemann hypothesis and the Birch–Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, each of which carries a bounty of US$1 million (A$1.4 million) if solved as one of the seven Millenium Prize Problems.

Why has OpenAI done this? And can we trust the claimed solutions are correct? Neither of these questions seem to have particularly obvious answers.

A strange way to enable progress

OpenAI says its motivation in releasing the huge trove of results is to “enable further progress in mathematics”. However, the manner of the release is not necessarily conducive to this goal.