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AI models solved math problems by processing them using

natural

language

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AI could soon tackle unsolved research problems, says math

professor and former champion

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OpenAI self-published results before official verification

By Kenrick Cai and Jaspreet Singh

July 21 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google and

OpenAI said their artificial-intelligence models won gold medals

at a global mathematics competition, signaling a breakthrough in

math capabilities in the race to build powerful systems that can

rival human intelligence.

The results marked the first time that AI systems crossed the

gold-medal scoring threshold at the International Mathematical

Olympiad for high-school students. Both companies' models solved

five out of six problems, achieving the result using

general-purpose "reasoning" models that processed mathematical

concepts using natural language, in contrast to the previous

approaches used by AI firms.

The achievement suggests AI is less than a year away from

being used by mathematicians to crack unsolved research problems

at the frontier of the field, according to Junehyuk Jung, a math

professor at Brown University and visiting researcher in

Google's DeepMind AI unit.

"I think the moment we can solve hard reasoning problems in

natural language will enable the potential for collaboration

between AI and mathematicians," Jung told Reuters.

The same idea can apply to research quandaries in other

fields such as physics, said Jung, who won an IMO gold medal as

a student in 2003.

Of the 630 students participating in the 66th IMO on the

Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, 67 contestants, or

about 11%, achieved gold-medal scores.

Google's DeepMind AI unit last year achieved a silver medal

score using AI systems specialized for math. This year, Google

used a general-purpose model called Gemini Deep Think, a version

of which was previously unveiled at its annual developer

conference in May.

Unlike previous AI attempts that relied on formal languages

and lengthy computation, Google's approach this year operated

entirely in natural language and solved the problems within the

official 4.5-hour time limit, the company said in a blog post.

OpenAI, which has its own set of reasoning models, similarly

built an experimental version for the competition, according to

a post by researcher Alexander Wei on social media platform X.

He noted that the company does not plan to release anything with

this level of math capability for several months.

This year marked the first time the competition coordinated

officially with some AI developers, who have for years used

prominent math competitions like IMO to test model capabilities.

IMO judges certified the results of those companies, including

Google, and asked them to publish results on July 28.

"We respected the IMO Board's original request that all AI

labs share their results only after the official results had

been verified by independent experts and the students had

rightly received the acclamation they deserved," Google DeepMind

CEO Demis Hassabis said on X on Monday.

However, OpenAI, which did not work with the IMO,

self-published its results on Saturday, allowing it to be first

among AI firms to claim gold-medal status.

In turn, the competition on Monday allowed cooperating

companies to publish results, Gregor Dolinar, president of IMO's

board, told Reuters.