Key facts
- Nearly 76% of surveyed early-career mathematicians said they are increasingly unlikely to stay in academic math.
- 76% said they feel less motivated to do research as a result of AI developments.
- The survey polled 268 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars via a Google Form.
- OpenAI and Anthropic pledged a combined $15 million to a foundation supporting mathematicians.
Researchers at MIT published a paper finding that a majority of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in mathematics see their career prospects dimming as AI takes on more mathematical work. The survey, conducted by three MIT-affiliated math students, polled 268 early-career mathematicians through a Google Form, using multiple-choice and free-response questions.
Nearly 76% of respondents said they are increasingly unlikely to stay in academic math after earning their degrees, and 76% said they feel less motivated to do research as a result of AI developments. In free-response answers, respondents described academic leadership as wayward, useless, meek, silent and ineffectual. One respondent wrote that institutes should give guidance instead of platitudes.
The authors said the response window closed just after OpenAI released hundreds of solutions to long-standing problems on October 6, and cautioned that the survey captures sentiment in only a small window of time. They wrote that the past couple of months have been exhausting as the field reckons with existential questions.
The paper follows OpenAI's publication of solutions to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize question in September. OpenAI and Anthropic have pledged a combined $15 million to a foundation supporting mathematicians, and OpenAI established an advisory group to judge its math operation, concessions respondents said had not changed much for them.