Computer Science Professor Raghu Meka, along with his collaborator, Princeton Professor Pravesh Kothari, have been awarded support from the AI for Math Fund, which is managed by Renaissance Philanthropy in partnership with founding donor XTX Markets.
Their project focuses on advancing the frontier of artificial intelligence in mathematics. While AI has excelled at solving contest-level math problems, the next challenge is automating discovery in research mathematics. Professors Meka and Kothari are developing a new theoretical framework and scalable search algorithms for automated proof discovery. As a proof of concept, the project will create a robust method for finding resolution proofs for Boolean Satisfiability Problem formulas and apply machine learning to Sidorenko’s conjecture, a major open problem in combinatorics. This work has the potential to significantly advance the use of AI to solve fundamental mathematical problems.
The Fund has announced a total of $18 million in grants and is one of the largest philanthropic commitments supporting the development of AI and machine learning-based tools to advance mathematics.
The first 29 winning projects include mathematicians and researchers at universities and organizations working to develop systems that help advance mathematical discovery and research across several key tasks. The grant awards range up to $1 million.
Launched in December 2024 with a $9-million commitment from XTX Markets, the Fund received 280 submissions from teams of researchers and mathematicians around the world. The number of high-quality applications was such that XTX Markets doubled its funding to $18 million.
To learn more about the Fund, see here. The full announcement and list of grantees can be found here.