Open AI and the million-dollar maths problem - video
In early September, OpenAI announced it had solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century. The news left mathematicians reeling, and many expresse
By The Guardian
OpenAI’s latest claim about solving a long-standing maths problem has prompted fresh concern among leading mathematicians, including 25 Fields medal recipients who have signed an open letter warning of a “severe misalignment” between AI companies and the discipline. The issue is being discussed in a Guardian video published on 17 September 2026, with Ian Sample speaking to Colva Roney-Dougal, professor of pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews.
The Guardian report says OpenAI announced in early September that its model had cracked a Millennium Prize Problem, a challenge that had resisted human mathematicians for decades. That claim has unsettled many in the field, who worry that AI firms are now using mathematics as a benchmark in ways that do not match the values of mathematicians.
The open letter from the Fields medal winners argues that the goals of AI companies and the mathematical community are diverging, and that this could affect how future work is judged and developed. The discussion in the video centres on how AI may change mathematics, and how mathematicians might respond to that shift.