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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

(Update to provide context in paragraph 3)

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 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 (IMO) 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.

While Google DeepMind worked with the IMO to have their

models graded and certified by the committee, OpenAI did not

officially enter the competition. The startup revealed their

models have achieved a gold medal-worthy score on this year's

questions on Saturday, citing grades by three external IMO

medalists.

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.

OpenAI's breakthrough was achieved with a new experimental

model centered on massively scaling up "test-time compute." This

was done by both allowing the model to "think" for longer

periods and deploying parallel computing power to run numerous

lines of reasoning simultaneously, according to Noam Brown,

researcher at OpenAI. Brown declined to say how much in

computing power it cost OpenAI, but called it "very expensive."

To OpenAI researchers, it is another clear sign that AI

models can command extensive reasoning capabilities that could

expand into other areas beyond math.

The optimism is shared by Google researchers, who believe AI

models' capabilities 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.

OpenAI, which published its results on Saturday and first

claimed gold-medal status, said in an interview that it had

permission from an IMO board member to do so after the closing

ceremony on Saturday.

The competition on Monday allowed cooperating companies to

publish results, Gregor Dolinar, president of IMO's board, told

Reuters.