Last week we organized an intensive two-day summit Math Research in the Age of AI. It was held at the Harvard Center for Mathematical Sciences and Applications (CMSA). Thirty-two mathematicians from academia, government, and industry came together to help navigate this period of rapid change in mathematics and, most importantly, to offer ideas for building the future. There were five working groups organized around the following themes:
- Evaluation, production, and dissemination of research
- Coordinated actions for the AI era
- Open-source tools
- Formalization in mathematics
- Collaboration between academia and AI labs
Our report can be found on the summit website. There you’ll also find a link to provide feedback.
Portions of the recommendations, particularly those in the section on evaluation, production, and dissemination of research, offer immediately actionable suggestions for review and hiring in mathematics departments. We encourage departments to act on those they can implement at this time and to begin longer-term conversations to rethink evaluation practices. We recognize that many of these changes may temporarily place greater burdens on faculty. These efforts are necessary to facilitate transitions to new norms for the field and are especially important in light of the need to support our students and young colleagues. Our recommendations go beyond academia; they impact government and industry as well.
Received 30 October 2026.
- Dan Freed (Harvard), Larry Guth (MIT), Bryna Kra (Northwestern), Emily Riehl (Johns Hopkins) and Mohammed Abouzaid (Stanford) ↩︎
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