03/06/2026
AI is challenging the core values of mathematics: researchers call for urgent action
As the rise of artificial intelligence forces mathematicians to rethink what makes their field reliable and valuable, an international group of researchers has warned that AI is putting fundamental values of the discipline under threat.
The group of mathematicians from 15 international universities has created the new Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, a call to protect the core values of mathematics in the age of AI.
The declaration is a response to questions including:
- What happens if a mathematical proof is no longer the work of a human, but of a proprietary AI model that academic researchers cannot access?
- Who is responsible for errors, and who gets credit if it is correct?
- How can we tell whether an AI-generated proof is truly new, or simply a clever reformulation of existing work without proper attribution?
These are no longer hypothetical questions, but current dilemmas mathematicians worldwide are grappling with.
Dr Michael Barany, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Edinburgh, is one of the authors of the declaration. Dr Barany works in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the School of Social and Political Science.
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