The Simons Foundation, in partnership with Anthropic and OpenAI, is launching a $15 million initiative to help mathematicians adapt to rapid advances in artificial intelligence. The foundation will manage and award the combined funding through an open call for proposals, backing workshops and community initiatives that teach researchers to use new AI tools, evaluate AI-assisted results, share perspectives, and develop collective standards for AI deployment. Anthropic and OpenAI will augment the effort by providing AI tools and computing resources available to grantees, and the program’s scope extends beyond pure mathematics into basic science where similar challenges and opportunities arise.
The campaign emphasizes a community-driven approach grounded in the foundation’s prior investments in computational methods, including early support for the Lean proof assistant and convening forums on AI’s role in mathematical practice. Simons Foundation president David Spergel frames the effort as a moment for the field to define evaluation and adoption norms collectively rather than leaving those decisions to individual companies or institutions. The initiative aims to catalyze shared practices, training, and infrastructure so mathematicians can harness AI while maintaining rigorous standards of proof and verification.
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