OpenAI jumps gun on International Math Olympiad gold medal announcement
On Saturday, OpenAI researcher Alexander Wei announced that a new AI language model the company is researching has achieved gold medal-level performance on the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), matching a standard that fewer than 9 percent of human contestants reach each year. The announcement came despite an embargo request from IMO organizers asking AI companies to wait until July 28 to share their results.
The experimental model reportedly tackled the contest's six proof-based problems under the same constraints as human competitors: 4.5 hours per session, with no Internet access or calculators allowed. However, several sources with inside knowledge of the process say that since OpenAI self-graded its IMO results, the legitimacy of the company's claim may be in question. OpenAI plans to publish the proofs and grading rubrics for public review.
According to OpenAI, its achievement marks a departure from previous AI attempts at mathematical Olympiad problems, which relied on specialized theorem-proving systems that often exceeded human time limits. OpenAI says its model processed problems as plain text and generated natural-language proofs, operating like a standard language model rather than a purpose-built mathematical system.