Mathathon, redesigned
An update to the Mathathon I wrote about last month. The original organizers and two coauthors of the open letter asking for it to be suspended redesigned the event together:
[…] We quickly reached a consensus: problem solving is but one component of mathematics; mathematical understanding and exposition are similarly meaningful. But these components have often been overlooked by grantmakers and hiring committees. We want to celebrate human mathematicians who undertake this work.
Thus the new theme of Mathathon is Old Problems, New Proofs.
Kra asked for the same: credit for explanation, not only for discovery.
We no longer receive sponsorships from developers of proprietary AI models. Participants are given a cash grant to purchase any tool they need, whether that be LLM credits, HPC access, or pen and paper. Proprietary models are allowed, but we encourage the use of open-source tools.
So the $20,000 of AI credits per team that I argued about is gone, and Anthropic has gone the way of OpenAI. The event has also moved, from 30 October to 13–15 November.
In the earlier post I said if you can’t beat them, join them: engage with them and shape how AI can and should be used in mathematical research. I think this is that, from the other side. The critics engaged with the organizers rather than only asking for a suspension, and the event changed.