Mathematicians are concerned that AI companies are using their discipline as a cheap and effective marketing tool to showcase model capabilities. This approach prioritizes hype and impressive-sounding breakthroughs over the long-term health and collaborative nature of the academic field.

Google's announcement of an AI-driven cancer research breakthrough, strategically timed against OpenAI's controversies, serves as a major public relations victory. It effectively frames Google as the mature, societally beneficial AI leader, while its main competitor deals with platform safety issues.

Researchers using frontier models like OpenAI's for sensitive work risk having their discoveries absorbed and claimed by the AI provider. This happened when a mathematician's work on the Navier-Stokes problem was allegedly used by OpenAI after being processed by their model, creating a major IP conflict in academia.

Using AI for proprietary work is risky. A researcher uploaded his unique work into OpenAI, which then solved the problem first, possibly using his inputs. This shows that your data can train a model to outperform you, turning a helpful tool into your biggest competitor.

When OpenAI started, the AI research community measured progress via peer-reviewed papers. OpenAI's contrarian move was to pour millions into GPUs and large-scale engineering aimed at tangible results, a strategy criticized by academics but which ultimately led to their breakthrough.

By focusing PR on scientific breakthroughs like protein folding, Google DeepMind and Demis Hassabis build public trust. This strategy contrasts sharply with OpenAI's narrative, which is clouded by its controversial non-profit-to-for-profit shift, creating widespread public skepticism.

Major AI labs strategically promote scientific breakthroughs, like Google's cancer research, not only for scientific merit but also as a powerful public relations tool. These announcements serve as a defense against regulatory scrutiny over massive energy and compute consumption, framing their work as essential for human progress.

The proposal is less a complex political strategy and more a straightforward PR effort. With AI being less popular than controversial figures, the offer is a headline-grabbing attempt to give the public a sense of ownership and improve brand sentiment.

OpenAI's AI solved a Millennium Prize problem, but the math community is unenthusiastic. They value the new insights and techniques generated during the problem-solving journey—the 'how'—not just the final answer, which the AI's paper fails to detail.