Questions about membership eligibility and the membership commitments are answered below. For other questions, please contact us directly at ahmathorg@gmail.com.

I am an academic worker in a scientific field adjacent to mathematics/I use a lot of mathematics in my work. Can I join the AHM?

You are welcome to join and we greatly appreciate your support! However, note that our working groups are specifically designed to address issues in the math academic environment, and these issues might not readily apply to your field. We recommend you join a similar organization for your field as well as the AHM, and we will be very happy to discuss logistics and cross collaboration.

I am not affiliated with an academic institution at the moment but I work in mathematics. Can I join the AHM?

Because the AHM is a professional organization, membership is restricted to professional mathematicians. If you are a professional mathematician who has no institutional affiliation at present, contact us directly at ahmathorg@gmail.com to explain your situation and your interest in the AHM.

I am an undergraduate student interested in mathematics. Can I join the AHM?

As mentioned above, members of the AHM are professional mathematicians. We hope to create a space where we can also support undergraduate students, and in the meantime we continue to work on teaching practices that benefit undergraduate students as well. We would like to collaborate with other organizations like ours, so we encourage you to create or join an undergraduate alliance and then reach out to us!

I am not sure how to interpret the three commitments, but I am interested in joining. Can you elaborate on their meaning?

The membership commitments are, to some extent, up to individual interpretation. They should be interpreted as expressions of principle rather than precise legal agreements. In particular, you should follow your conscience in adhering to the membership commitments. We encourage members to interrogate their own AI usage and to consider the costs before delegating a particular task to AI. We welcome a diversity of opinions and hope members will thoughtfully discuss their points of view with one another.

Below you will find some answers to common questions we have received about the wording of the commitments:

The first commitment states that I cannot work for a commercial AI company. What does this mean, exactly?

Our intent behind the first commitment is that members do not directly aid AI companies. A non-exhaustive list includes: taking a job at an AI company, collaborating with employees of these companies to enhance or advertise their products; providing explicit advertisements of proprietary models; and consensually providing mathematical expertise or data to be used for training AI models. We discourage anyone from performing any labor on behalf of institutions that are diametrically opposed to our values. 

The first commitment states that I cannot provide mathematical knowledge or consultation to an AI company. What does that entail?

These companies sometimes ask mathematicians to lead research projects under their supervision to test the capabilities of their models. This is an example of mathematical consultation that is in direct opposition with the goals of the AHM. However, we recognize some interactions with AI companies may be beneficial to mathematicians: for example, members are encouraged to talk to those in the AI industry about the impacts of AI on mathematics, or to participate in public debates which feature employees of AI companies.

Does acknowledging AI use in a paper count as promoting the products of AI companies?

No. All members should adhere to the standards of academic integrity, including disclosure of AI use. We invite members to reflect critically on whether they want to include the name of the specific AI model used.

The second commitment states that I cannot publish texts generated by AI models. Does that mean I cannot use AI in writing at all, e.g. to speed up literature search, generate LaTeX code, check my grammar, polish the text, and so on?

The second commitment prohibits prompt-based writing, where the human element consists mainly of feeding instructions to a machine. We consider the resulting texts to be “generated by AI models”. An example of an AI-generated mathematical text which goes against the second commitment is the document about the Navier-Stokes problem produced by OpenAI.

I am an editor at a journal and I signed the second commitment. Should I publish AI generated submissions to the journal?

The second commitment is intended to apply only to texts you write or co-write. The decision to publish an AI-generated text in your journal is up to you and your co-editors.

What does the third commitment entail precisely? What does it mean to be part of the AI-free caucus?

Members of our AI-free caucus do not use AI tools in a research capacity. This means that they do not use AI tools to generate mathematical ideas, select problems, explore examples, or to find proofs. As with the second commitment, our goal is not to provide a legalistic taxonomy of AI use. Members of our AI-free caucus agree to avoid the use of AI tools in research, and should follow their own conscience in adhering to this principle.

I have worked with AI companies or used AI in the past in a way that conflicts with these commitments. Can I join the AHM?

Yes. We recognize that individuals’ viewpoints and circumstances evolve. All members of the mathematical research community who sign the first and second commitments are welcome in the AHM. We value a diversity of perspectives and experiences among our members, and encourage our members to share their expertise with our working groups to create a better future for mathematics.