Altman: Mathematicians moved from disbelief to adaptation in days
Speaking at Stanford GSB in a talk published October 21, the OpenAI CEO said mathematicians went from calling AI math results fake to rethinking their roles.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said mathematicians moved from disbelief to a rethink of their roles within about five days of OpenAI's AI math research announcements, describing the shift in a talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business published on October 21, according to aitimes.com.
Altman said mathematicians first reacted with disbelief, calling the results fake. The mood shifted the next day to despair, he said, with some saying their field was finished and telling graduate students to change majors. Around the third day, reactions turned to anger at OpenAI for doing this.
By about the fifth day, Altman said, some mathematicians began to see that although certain kinds of math research jobs could disappear, the value of their work remains. They started describing new roles, he said, such as deciding what to research, understanding results, and explaining or organizing them into good proofs.
Altman said he has never seen a field go through such a change process so quickly, and that similar shifts are happening more slowly in other fields. He added that he does not think a jobs crisis will occur.
Earlier math results
In September 2026, OpenAI announced that an internal model had proposed a solution to a difficult problem involving the Navier-Stokes equations. This month, the company released hundreds of math research results at once, sparking debate in the math community over credit and proof verification.
Quick answers
What did Sam Altman say about mathematicians' reaction to OpenAI's math results?
He said they first called the results fake, then shifted to despair the next day, anger around the third day, and by about the fifth day began to see new roles for themselves.
Where did Sam Altman make these comments?
In a talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business that was published on October 21.