OpenAI has withdrawn its sponsorship of a mathematics hackathon at the California Institute of Technology after current and former Caltech mathematicians warned that the event could have damaging consequences for the mathematical community and deepen tensions over how artificial intelligence is being used to conduct research.

The decision came a day after academics published an open letter criticizing the event, backed by AI companies, which challenges participants to use large language models to tackle open mathematical problems.

Dan Roberts, OpenAI’s research lead, said Thursday that the company was no longer sponsoring the event, known as Mathathon, and acknowledged that the rapid advance of AI in mathematics had created tensions that required greater engagement with researchers.

“We recognize that the rapid progress of AI in mathematics is disruptive,” Roberts said on X. “We’re looking to engage with the math community more on the best way to integrate this technology and communicate its impacts.”

The dispute points to a growing divide between AI companies eager to demonstrate that their models can contribute to frontier scientific research and mathematicians who say those claims can shift substantial amounts of verification and research work onto academics without adequate credit or compensation.

The academics described the practice as “slop mathematics,” noting that AI companies can present apparently novel solutions to difficult theoretical problems while leaving human researchers to determine whether the results are actually correct.

“After the latest result is dropped, research mathematicians are compelled to step in to properly verify, disseminate, and sometimes discredit entirely the claimed results,” the mathematicians wrote. “This labor goes uncompensated, uncredited, and unacknowledged.”

The criticism intensified after OpenAI said Tuesday that its AI agents had solved the Navier-Stokes equations, a roughly 90-year-old mathematical problem involving equations used to describe the movement of fluids and gases.

The claim immediately became a subject of scrutiny among mathematicians, particularly because establishing that a proposed computational solution constitutes a genuine solution to a major unsolved mathematical problem requires rigorous proof and independent verification.

Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematician at New York University who, together with another academic, had published research related to the problem on Monday, questioned whether OpenAI’s systems could have benefited from his previous conversations with AI chatbots, including OpenAI’s products.

OpenAI said it could not rule out the possibility that “de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models.”

That episode has added to concerns about the boundaries between AI-assisted mathematical research, model training and the ownership or attribution of intellectual contributions. For mathematicians, the issue extends beyond whether an AI-generated answer is ultimately correct. It also involves who gets credit for discoveries, who performs the labor needed to validate them, and whether researchers whose work contributes indirectly to AI systems are properly acknowledged.

The Caltech mathematicians also said that Mathathon could effectively become an advertising vehicle for AI companies, allowing them to associate themselves with the work of promising young researchers.

They said the companies could “take credit for the effort of talented undergrads,” raising questions about whether students participating in an AI-sponsored competition fully understand how their work might be used or presented.

Mathathon was designed as a test bed for the use of AI in mathematical research. Its application materials describe the event as an opportunity for young mathematicians to “responsibly use AI tools to augment human understanding of mathematics.”

Participants are expected to compete in an initial round lasting 40 hours, during which they receive $20,000 worth of AI tokens to work on an open research problem.

Teams producing answers judged to be “promising and well explained” can then advance to a second stage lasting six months, with additional AI credits to continue developing their work.

OpenAI and Anthropic had agreed to support the competition with a combined $2 million in AI credits. It remained unclear Thursday how much of that contribution came from OpenAI and what would happen to the company’s pledged credits following its withdrawal.

Anthropic, which is also sponsoring the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The organizers, many of whom are undergraduates, said Thursday that they had not intended for the competition to generate the controversy surrounding it.

“Events like Mathathon encourage young people to stay excited about mathematics, engage their interests with modern tools, and maintain hope in a confusing time,” they wrote in a response letter. “It’s our first time running an event at this scale, and we are grateful for all the feedback we have received.”

The disagreement exposes a broader challenge for AI companies as their models move deeper into scientific and academic work. Demonstrating that an AI system can generate an apparently sophisticated mathematical result is one thing; establishing that the result represents a meaningful advance in human knowledge is another.

Mathematics is particularly unforgiving in this regard. A proposed answer can appear compelling while containing a subtle logical error, an unsupported assumption or a gap that invalidates the entire argument. Independent researchers therefore remain essential to checking claims, establishing proofs and determining whether a result is genuinely new.

The situation has created an unusual tension for AI-driven research. The companies developing increasingly capable models have strong incentives to publicize breakthroughs, while the academic community often bears much of the burden of determining whether those breakthroughs withstand scrutiny.

Therefore, OpenAI’s decision to leave the Caltech event may be more than a sponsorship dispute. It signals that the rapid integration of AI into mathematics is beginning to force difficult questions about research ethics, attribution, and the division of labor between machines and the humans expected to validate their work.

The European Central Bank raised its key deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.5% on Thursday, delivering the widely expected increase as surging energy prices and geopolitical tensions complicate the outlook for inflation and economic growth across the euro zone.

The decision lifted the deposit rate from 2.25% and marked the latest step in the ECB’s tightening cycle, which began in response to an inflation shock intensified by the war in the Middle East.

Markets had fully priced in the increase ahead of the meeting, with LSEG data showing a 100% probability of a 25-basis-point hike.

The more consequential question for investors is what comes next.

The ECB has repeatedly avoided committing to a predetermined path, saying policymakers will assess incoming economic data and the intensity and duration of the energy shock at each meeting. But with eurozone inflation accelerating and energy costs rising sharply, investors are increasingly debating whether the central bank will need to deliver several additional increases.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said the Middle East conflict, along with developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine, could keep headline inflation “well above target” for an extended period.

At the same time, she warned that higher energy costs and global trade tensions could weaken economic activity.

“The outlook remains highly uncertain, with risks to the upside for inflation and to the downside for economic growth,” the ECB’s Governing Council said.

The central bank also pointed to a “broad range of outcomes” for growth and inflation, depending on the scale and duration of the energy shock and whether higher prices generate second-round effects throughout the economy.

Energy Shock Puts ECB In Difficult Position

The ECB is facing a difficult policy trade-off because the latest inflation surge is being driven in large part by energy costs rather than excessive domestic demand.

Eurozone inflation reached 3.3% in August, while energy inflation surged to 14.3%.

The region’s dependence on imported energy leaves it highly exposed to disruptions in global commodity markets. The conflict in the Middle East has threatened oil and other commodity flows through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing energy prices sharply higher and increasing the risk that the initial supply shock will spread into transportation, manufacturing and consumer prices.

That creates a problem for the ECB.

Higher interest rates can restrain demand and prevent an energy shock from becoming embedded in wages and broader prices, but monetary policy cannot directly increase oil supplies or reopen disrupted trade routes. Aggressive tightening can therefore reduce economic activity without immediately eliminating the original source of inflation.

Lagarde acknowledged the tension, saying the euro zone economy had demonstrated “greater-than-expected resilience” but warning that the energy price shock and global trade tensions remained risks to growth.

The ECB’s baseline forecasts already point to inflation remaining above its 2% target. Core inflation, excluding energy and food, is expected to average 2.5% in 2026, 2.6% in 2027 and 2.3% in 2028.

That projected persistence makes it harder for policymakers to treat the energy shock as a temporary spike.

 Investors See More Hikes Ahead

Some investment strategists now expect the ECB to continue raising rates.

Ed Hutchings, head of rates at Aviva Investors, said inflation remains a “significant source of concern” for policymakers and markets.

“It’s clear more hikes will be coming, and potentially more than one,” Hutchings said.

He added that the ECB’s immediate priority was addressing the inflation backdrop, although he cautioned that markets may already be pricing an excessive amount of tightening.

“With two hikes already being delivered and more than a further two hikes priced, things may well have gone too far,” he said.

Patrick Ernst, a macro investment strategist at JPMorgan Private Bank, also said the energy shock could force the ECB to continue tightening.

“In keeping the door open to further tightening, policymakers made clear that an energy-led inflation risk is still very much in play,” Ernst said. “One hike is not a ceiling.”

Felix Feather, an economist at Aberdeen, expects another increase at the ECB’s December meeting.

“The Eurozone has proved remarkably resilient despite higher energy prices and geopolitical uncertainty, leading policymakers to revise growth expectations higher,” Feather said.

“At the same time, inflation forecasts have also moved up, reflecting elevated energy costs and concerns that inflation could remain above target for longer.”

Bond Markets Add to The Pressure

The ECB’s policy challenge is being amplified by a sharp increase in government borrowing costs. European bond yields have risen to multi-decade highs in recent weeks as investors have reassessed the inflation outlook and priced in the possibility of additional interest-rate increases.

Higher sovereign yields matter beyond financial markets. They raise borrowing costs for governments, businesses and households and can tighten financial conditions even before the ECB delivers another rate increase.

But that creates another policy tension.

Economists warn that if the ECB raises rates aggressively to contain inflation expectations, it could reinforce the rise in borrowing costs and place additional pressure on already vulnerable economies. But if it moves too cautiously while energy-driven inflation persists, policymakers risk allowing temporary price increases to become embedded in wage negotiations, services inflation and inflation expectations.

The ECB therefore has to balance two opposing risks: doing too little and allowing inflation to become persistent, or doing too much and unnecessarily weakening economic growth.

Investors remain divided over where the tightening cycle will ultimately end. A Deutsche Bank survey of clients conducted over the past week found no clear consensus on the ECB’s terminal rate. More than one-third of respondents agreed with Deutsche Bank economists’ expectation that the deposit rate could reach 2.75%.

About one-quarter expected rates to remain at 2.5%, effectively treating Thursday’s increase as the end of the cycle.

Another quarter expected the ECB to take rates to 3%, implying two additional 25-basis-point increases after Thursday’s move. The dispersion illustrates how unusually dependent the ECB’s policy outlook has become on geopolitical developments.

Before the Middle East conflict intensified, policymakers could assess inflation and growth largely through conventional economic indicators. The current environment is more complicated because the trajectory of oil prices, shipping disruptions, energy availability and global trade can materially alter the inflation outlook between policy meetings.

ECB’s June Hike Began The Cycle

The ECB raised rates in June for the first time since 2023, taking the deposit rate to 2.25% and becoming the first major central bank to respond to the new inflationary shock associated with the Middle East conflict.

At the time, Lagarde warned of upside risks to inflation and downside risks to economic growth while stressing that the Governing Council was “not pre-committing to a particular rate path.”

The ECB subsequently held rates steady at its next meeting, saying it was closely monitoring the “intensity and duration” of the energy shock as well as its indirect and second-round effects.

Thursday’s increase shows how quickly that assessment has changed as energy inflation has accelerated.

For financial markets, the 25-basis-point increase itself was largely settled before policymakers met. The uncertainty lies in whether the ECB can contain the inflation shock without pushing the eurozone into a sharper slowdown.

Analysts say the answer will depend heavily on developments outside the ECB’s control. This is because if energy prices remain elevated and inflation stays above target, the central bank may have to continue tightening even as growth weakens. That would make the current cycle fundamentally different from a conventional demand-driven inflation episode.

The ECB would be raising rates not because the economy is overheating, but because a geopolitical energy shock threatens to keep prices elevated for longer.