Jacob Tsimerman, a professor at the University of Toronto and a recent recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal (often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics), is taking a leave to join OpenAI's safety division in San Francisco. This move comes despite his vocal concerns that artificial intelligence presents a "serious" threat to humanity and could even lead to human extinction. Tsimerman believes AI will soon surpass human mathematicians in capabilities, doing "everything that mathematicians do now better and faster."
Tsimerman, who is 38 years old, was awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to proving the André-Oort conjecture, a significant advancement in number theory. He received a $15,000 Canadian dollar prize, approximately $10,600, along with the medal. His decision to join OpenAI follows a year as a distinguished visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in the U.S. He began his math studies at the University of Toronto at age 16 and returned as a professor after completing his Ph.D. at Princeton and postdoctoral studies at Harvard.
The announcement of Tsimerman's move to OpenAI has garnered attention, with some comparing it to "hiring Lionel Messi as project manager" for AI safety. His rationale for joining is to address the potential dangers of AI directly, stating that for him, the best place to work on mitigating these risks is from within the leading AI organizations. Tsimerman has previously co-authored a paper outlining potential "omnicidal" futures resulting from AI.
