Mathathon.
AI has made groundbreaking progress in pure math in the past few months. That raises the question: how can we responsibly use AI tools to augment human understanding of mathematics?
We are assembling 100 teams of mathematicians to answer this question. Our objective is to provide frontier models for the math community to use, as opposed to solely AI corporations. The Mathathon will consist of two rounds:
- Round 1: Onsite, 40 hours. Teams will receive $20k+ of AI credits, make preliminary progress, and present work to a panel of judges.
- Round 2: Teams that win Round 1 will receive additional credits to further their work in the next 6 months.
Final deliverables for Round 2 are a draft paper, a video presentation, and a formalized submission. Judging and verification will begin as a 6-month period immediately afterwards.
We are hosting Round 1 on October 30th to November 1st at Caltech. Apply now.
Contact: mathathon@caltech.edu
FAQ
Who runs Mathathon?Mathathon is a registered student organization at Caltech. Its decisions are made by its executive board, which consists of undergraduate students currently enrolled at Caltech. The board does not receive monetary compensation from Mathathon or its sponsors.
What are the goals of Mathathon?The goal of Mathathon is to promote responsible use of AI in mathematics. We are committed to the following principles:
- Equity. We believe everyone in the mathematical community deserves sufficient access to frontier models, as opposed to solely AI companies. We welcome participants from all backgrounds. We admit applicants on the basis of their perceived mathematical ability. We will cover their travel expenses. We will provide every team with the same computational resources.
- Transparency. We will record and open source all AI chat logs produced at this event. We ask participants to declare AI usage in any publication that results from this event.
- Understanding. We require participants to present their results orally and answer questions from our judges. All presentations will be recorded.
- Verification. We will publish results, presentations, and chat logs to mathdb.com for the entire mathematical community to review. We encourage participants to formalize their results.
Every submission is scored as follows:
score = understanding × impact + verificationPartial progress earns points. We do not expect anyone to settle a conjecture and fully understand it inside 40 hours, so scores are normalized across human participants. Prizes at the event go to the most promising and best-explained results, together with AI credits to carry the work on afterwards.
A preliminary judging rubric is available here. We welcome all feedback.
What do you think about the controversies surrounding AI?We acknowledge that our viewpoint on AI and mathematics is incomplete. We invite both AI-positive and AI-skeptic mathematicians to attend this event and speak about their views. We also welcome comments on our rules and judging process, which are public in the Mathathon rules and judging rubric.
We greatly appreciate the time taken by anyone who has given feedback regarding Mathathon. We will keep working with them and other mathematicians to improve our event.
Who can apply?We welcome applicants for participation from anyone, including undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-docs. We encourage faculty and professors to consider applying as a judge here instead.
Will my travel be covered?We are covering the cost of flights for all participants and judges. Participants will stay at the venue overnight. We are also covering hotel accommodations for judges.
When will I receive a decision for my application?We aim to finalize speakers, judges, and participants by the end of September. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We’ll attempt to get back to international applicants sooner. We cannot help with visa sponsorships.
What are the prizes?We will give out $100k in Anthropic API credits. We are exploring the possibility of cash prizes.