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OpenAI Forms Independent Math Advisory Group After Reputational Crisis

After a string of mathematical results became a reputational crisis, OpenAI has formed a nine-member independent mathematics advisory group hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study. Researchers call it a first step but question its influence and selection.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-23 10:10

The nine-member group, called the Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (AGMAI), is made up of researchers from institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, with multiple Fields Medals and MacArthur “genius grants” among them, according to The Verge. It will be hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, a center of mathematical research and the former intellectual home of Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

OpenAI said AGMAI will operate independently. It will have the freedom to offer advice the company has not requested, publicly comment on its impact on mathematics, and make its advice public, though OpenAI did not provide details on what that might entail. The group appears to have early access to OpenAI’s research in order to carry out 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.”

Despite the emphasis on independence, it remains unclear how much influence the group will have or why it was formed. Simon Machado, a researcher at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told The Verge the whole thing seemed “shrouded in mystery,” and he questioned how the nine members were selected. The group’s website says it “came together after OpenAI approached some of its members about establishing an external advisory board,” but that after discussions with the company, the mathematicians decided to launch an independent group instead and invite others to join. It is 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.”

Hairer acknowledged that the group was formed in response to an approach from OpenAI, but 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. 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.”

Editor's Summary

OpenAI has created a nine-member independent mathematics advisory group hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study to guide its engagement with mathematical research and the wider math community. The panel includes prominent researchers, but its formation has prompted questions about member selection, influence, and whether OpenAI will follow its advice. A member, Martin Hairer, says the group is independent and acting in good faith.