Caltech ‘Mathathon’ is reworked into ‘Old Problems, New Proofs’ after an open letter from mathematicians
Result confirmed
The takeaway
On Sept 28, 2026 Caltech’s organizers and the signatories of an open letter against the AI-sponsored ‘Mathathon’ published a joint statement on Terence Tao’s blog.
Status
- Claim
Result confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Verification
- Unverified claim
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 Astra151 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.590 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen181 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7120 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 90 days before it.
Key facts
- Joint statement posted Sept 28, 2026 on terrytao.wordpress.com
- The original open letter (proofsandprompts.com, Sept 10) gathered 2,000+ signatures
- New format: 40 hours learning existing hard proofs, then two months producing new expositions
- Tool-neutral cash grants replace proprietary-AI sponsorship; XTX Markets is lead donor, SAIR co-organizes
- Also that week on Tao’s blog: recommendations of the Harvard/CMSA Summit on PhD Math Education in the Age of AI (Sept 25)
What happened
A public dispute over an AI-lab-sponsored math competition ended with the event redesigned around understanding and exposition rather than AI problem-solving.
Why it matters
It is part of the September 2026 push by research mathematicians to set norms for AI in their field, after the Fields medalists’ letter, the ICIAM statement and OpenAI’s advisory group.
Sources
3 sources from 2 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 2 primary, 1 reaction
Primary
- Terence Tao: Joint statement about Mathathonterrytao.wordpress.com, official
- Recommendations of the Summit on PhD Math Education in the Age of AIterrytao.wordpress.com, official
Reactions
- Open letter about the Mathathonproofsandprompts.com, discussion
Changes
- Filed