Scientific Research

Public disputes concerning scientific research, research methods, authorship, credit, collaboration, publication, and research conduct.

Related cases

Case

Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

Tristan Buckmaster describes pressure over authorship and publication during discussions about competing AI-assisted mathematics results. Sébastien Bubeck disputes that characterization and says the proposed authorship concerned OpenAI's own proof. His apology for career-related wording does not settle the disagreement. Researchers and commentators divide over whether the negotiations were appropriate, while raising a separate dispute about the treatment of unpublished user research.

Statements

Tristan Buckmaster

Role at the time: Mathematician involved in the research-credit dispute, posting on Mastodon

September 8, 2026Condemned

Responding to

Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

"This below is absolute academic malpractice:"

Why we used this label

Buckmaster directly alleges improper academic conduct in the research narrative. His training-data concern remains an allegation, not an established finding.

Tristan Buckmaster: follow-up criticism of OpenAI's research accountOriginal post, last edited about21:34UTC; publication metadata verified

Read statement Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

Nan Jiang

Role at the time: Personal response to Bubeck's explanation

September 8, 2026Condemned

Responding to

Jiang argues that even an offer of authorship on OpenAI's proof did not justify unilaterally excluding the other team's collaborator.

"you unilaterally tried to dictate who from other side can stay on the paper"

Why we used this label

A substantive criticism that survives the distinction between the two teams' proofs.

Nan Jiang challenges the proposed authorship arrangements after Bubeck's clarification

Read statement Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

Levent Alpöge

Role at the time: Collaborator who says he overheard the hallway conversation, not a participant in the calls

September 8, 2026Condemned

Responding to

Alpöge says his exclusion appeared to be a settled condition of the proposed collaboration.

"i actually woulda been pumped to collaborate on this"

Why we used this label

Criticizes the terms while affirming support for inter-lab scientific collaboration.

Alpöge describes his willingness to collaborate and what he heard

Read statement Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

Thomas Wolf

Role at the time: Personal public response

September 8, 2026Condemned

Responding to

OpenAI improperly pressured the researchers over authorship and publication of the mathematical results.

"marketing games hurtful for the real scientific community"

Why we used this label

Condemnation of the reported conduct, qualified by an explicit request to hear the other account.

Thomas Wolf criticizes the reported handling of researchers and asks to hear both sides

Read statement Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

Vincent Woo

Role at the time: Personal public response

September 8, 2026Condemned

Responding to

OpenAI improperly pressured the researchers over authorship and publication of the mathematical results.

"A bit cutthroat, I think."

Why we used this label

Explicit negative assessment of the handling of credit.

Vincent Woo criticizes the reported competition for credit

Read statement Did OpenAI improperly pressure mathematicians over authorship and credit?

People with useful coverage

Noam Brown

Research scientist at OpenAI specializing in reasoning, reinforcement learning, self-play and multi-agent AI.

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Vincent Woo

Founder of CoderPad and an occasional journalist.

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