The Simons Foundation has announced a $15 million partnership with OpenAI and Anthropic to help mathematicians evaluate AI-assisted research, learn new AI tools, and develop shared standards for using machine-generated results in the field.
OpenAI is contributing $5 million along with model access and compute for Simons-supported researchers, while Anthropic is providing funding and tools under the joint package. The Simons Foundation will manage and award the money, including through an open call for proposals for workshops and related programs. The support extends beyond pure mathematics into basic science.
The initiative follows OpenAI’s recent publication of hundreds of experimental AI-generated math results, which drew sharp pushback from mathematicians who said the flood of machine proofs overwhelms traditional verification and collaboration norms. The new funding acknowledges that the research community needs infrastructure to check, interpret, and build on what models now produce at volume.
It also signals a shift in how frontier labs engage with the fields they disrupt — funding independent capacity to verify and standardize AI-assisted work rather than treating those fields only as benchmark scoreboards.
While researchers wrestle with verifying AI-generated proofs, consumer-facing math tools are already solving problems step by step. Tools like Photomath, Symbolab, Wolfram Alpha, and Gauth show how far applied math AI has already come.
Source: Dealroom News
