XTX Markets has announced the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Mathematical Olympiad Prize (‘AIMO Prize’), a $10mn challenge fund aimed at encouraging the development of a publicly available AI model that can secure a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
XTX Markets is thrilled to collaborate with an esteemed panel of mathematicians, and AI and machine learning experts. This panel features Timothy Gowers and Terence Tao, both recipients of the Fields Medal, which represents one of the highest honours in the field of mathematics.
Joining them are Po-Shen Loh, the ex-coach of the US IMO Team; Dan Roberts, an AI researcher at Sequoia Capital and MIT, known for his contributions to machine learning; and Geoff Smith, the past President of the IMO.
The AIMO Advisory Committee will provide crucial support for the AIMO Prize, offering guidance on the establishment of protocols and technical details, and shaping the competitions and awards.
Terence Tao, a Fields Medallist and Professor of Mathematics at UCLA, stated: “Despite recent advances, using AI to solve, or at least assist with solving, advanced mathematical problems remains an incredibly complicated and multifaceted challenge. It will be important to experiment with multiple approaches to this goal, and to benchmark the performance of each of them.
“The AIMO Prize promises to provide at least one such set of benchmarks which will help compare different AI problem-solving strategies at a technical level, in a manner that will be accessible and appealing to the broader public.”
Timothy Gowers, a Fields Medallist and Professor of Combinatorics at the Collège de France, mentioned: “Machine learning methods have had spectacular success in several domains, but their performance on tasks that involve multi-step reasoning still lags behind. For this reason, solving advanced mathematics problems has been increasingly recognised as a major frontier for AI, the passing of which has the potential to open up a new wave of important applications. The AIMO prize will play a valuable role by stimulating research in this direction.
“It is particularly welcome that the prizes are for publicly available research, as this will lead to faster and more efficient progress.”
A grand prize of $5mn is set for the first AI model, shared publicly, to enter an AIMO approved competition and perform at a level comparable to a gold medal at the IMO. Additionally, there will be progress prizes amounting to $5mn for publicly available AI models that reach significant milestones towards the grand prize.
The inaugural AIMO approved competitions are scheduled to open to entrants in early 2024, with a progress presentation planned in Bath, England, in July 2024, during the 65th IMO. Further details on the progress prizes will be disclosed soon.
Eoghan Flanagan, Director of the AIMO Prize, expressed: “We are delighted to welcome such esteemed members of the mathematical community to the advisory committee of the AIMO Prize. I look forward to working with them on developing and growing the Prize.”
