OpenAI withdraws $10,000 a team from Caltech's Mathathon 50 days before it starts

A team that signed up for the Mathathon had $20,000 in tokens and a 40-hour clock to spend it against, which is $500 of credit an hour ^[11][16]. Since Thursday that budget is $10,000, or $250 an hour, unless the organizers replace OpenAI's half ^[1][13][16]. Across 100 teams, that half comes to $1 million of the $2 million in credits OpenAI and Anthropic had promised jointly ^[14][12].

The competition asks its teams one question: "How can we responsibly use AI tools to augment human understanding of mathematics?" ^[10]. Paying for that question in your own tokens puts your model in front of the people best placed to check what it produced. The open letter from current and former Caltech mathematicians, reported this week by Business Insider, answered the question before the first round ^[3]. It said AI-driven "slop mathematics" effectively constitutes research misconduct, because it consumes the work of research mathematicians and uses it to scoop them on solutions without contributing to understanding ^[4]. It warned the Mathathon would have "destructive impacts for the mathematical community" ^[5].

That came the same week OpenAI said it had solved the Navier-Stokes problem ^[6]. NYU's Tristan Buckmaster and Anthropic's Levent Alpoge speculated openly about whether OpenAI had learned they were nearing a breakthrough and appropriated their work through training data ^[7].

The letter had used the word destructive ^[5]. Roberts wrote: "We recognize that the rapid progress of AI in mathematics is disruptive. We're looking to engage with the math community more on the best way to integrate this technology and communicate its impacts." ^[9] Gizmodo's report does not say whether Anthropic's half of the pledge still stands.

For anyone designing or accepting a program like this, two things about the Mathathon's design are worth writing down. Its premise was a claim about the sponsor's product that the participants were qualified to check, and the funding did not survive them checking it and publishing a no. The teams found out 50 days before the first round ^[15]. A team on the receiving end can protect itself by getting the commitment in writing, or by sizing the event to what it can run if the sponsor leaves. A sponsor can decide in advance what it will do when a participant contradicts its launch post, which is cheaper than deciding it the same week. The Mathathon's spokesperson told Gizmodo the event is "currently in talks with other firms who are willing to provide a similar amount per team as well" ^[13].