fidzu : nerd

"It's a reminder of how human activity is changing the natural world in unanticipated ways."

02 Jun 2026 11:05pm GMT

A new Leiden Declaration, endorsed by the International Mathematical Union and published on June 2, 2026, warns that AI could undermine mathematics by flooding the field with plausible but flawed proofs, weakening attribution, shifting incentives, and giving tech companies too much influence over research priorities. "Mathematicians should find it quite striking that tech companies are suddenly interested in their work," said Kevin Buzzard, a mathematician at Imperial College London, in a statement. "The Leiden Declaration is a well-thought-through response to what is currently happening, as AI continues to disrupt this space." Ars Technica reports: The Leiden Declaration, which has already drawn hundreds of signatories, warns that recent AI developments are threatening "characteristic values" of mathematical research, "often in ways that disproportionately affect students and early-career mathematicians, and hence the long term future of the discipline." First, it points out how AI models can "produce plausible but unreliable (or even incorrect) arguments which are difficult to distinguish from correct mathematical proofs." Such developments put reviewers under increasing pressure and are "jeopardizing our ability to implement traditional standards for the correctness, transparency, and independent verifiability of proof," the declaration warns. "Inaccurate AI-generated drafts are cheap to produce, and there is a risk of cluttering the literature with claimed results that are simply wrong," said Leslie Ann Goldberg, head of computer science at the University of Oxford, in a statement. "Once that happens, the errors are likely to propagate as new results are built on faulty foundations." Second, the declaration highlights how "models trained on published works frequently return outputs that do not properly cite the human works they synthesize," while also pointing out that many current AI models were trained on data obtained through "exploiting licenses and access arrangements" or "simply violating copyright protections." Third, the declaration describes how the use of AI "may become incentivized for its own sake, disrupting our mechanisms for hiring, funding and recognition" while leaving out researchers who lack access or are "unwilling to use technologies controlled by organizations whose values they do not share." Fourth, the declaration warns against mathematics research "communicated through informal channels such as press releases or blog posts, often without any research paper or other disclosure of information necessary for scientific evaluation." Such communication strategies can lead to "oversimplification" in media reporting that overemphasizes AI tools' significance at the expense of prior human contributions, and "misleadingly uses specific mathematical tasks as metrics for the general reasoning capacities of commercial products." Fifth, the declaration describes "increasing involvement of technology companies in mathematical research" as threatening the "autonomy of mathematics," especially as university budgets are under pressure and researchers may feel greater professional incentive to collaborate with technology companies on "asymmetric terms." This also raises the risk that mathematics research questions amenable to AI-driven techniques may be prioritized. What can mathematicians do about this? The Leiden Declaration urges them to treat AI as a tool, not a substitute for human responsibility. Individual mathematicians should disclose AI use, remain accountable for the correctness of their work, continue crediting human authors, and use AI tools only when they align with the declaration's values. It also warns that mathematics can be applied to "warfare, oppression, mass surveillance, and the undermining of democracy," so mathematicians should weigh the ethics of tech-industry partnerships carefully. Professional organizations are encouraged to develop AI-use guidelines for publication and review, protect researchers from having their work used as training data without consent, support peer-reviewed publishing, and "actively prepare to become involved if major mathematical results are claimed using unconventional means." For policymakers, the recommendations are blunt: "protect the rights of authors," "regulate the artificial intelligence industry," and "invest in public computational infrastructure." The declaration also urges people to "don't believe the hype," warning that tech companies have "a strong commercial incentive... to overstate the capabilities of their products."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

02 Jun 2026 11:00pm GMT

Comments

02 Jun 2026 10:55pm GMT

One hardware announcement and several software highlights from Microsoft Build.

02 Jun 2026 10:51pm GMT

Comments

02 Jun 2026 10:34pm GMT

Comments

02 Jun 2026 10:22pm GMT

The European Parliament is replacing Google with French search engine Qwant as the default on in-house computers, citing digital sovereignty and privacy concerns. Politico reports: As of Thursday June 4, "Qwant will replace Google as default search engine on European Parliament computers," officials told lawmakers in an email seen by POLITICO. The change is being made "in line with the Parliament's commitment to digital sovereignty and the protection of users' personal data." The search-engine switch comes as Brussels doubles down on its push for âoetech sovereignty.â The European Commission will on Wednesday unveil its long-awaited tech sovereignty package aimed at reducing dependence on foreign technology providers and boosting European alternatives. The email described Qwant as a "privacy-focused European search engine" designed to avoid tracking users or collecting personal data. Founded in 2013, Qwant markets itself as a privacy-first alternative to Google. Searches conducted through the address bar in Firefox and Edge browsers will automatically be routed through Qwant, although lawmakers will remain free to use competing search engines or change their default settings.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

02 Jun 2026 10:00pm GMT

Russia's FSB claims foreign intelligence services compromised smartphones belonging to senior Russian officials, allegedly turning them into surveillance devices capable of stealing data, recording conversations, and activating microphones or cameras. "This software is used to steal existing data, eavesdrop on ongoing conversations, and conduct covert acoustic and video monitoring of the environment near electronic devices, all aimed at obtaining sensitive information," the FSB said. The Register reports: The agency said it had opened a criminal investigation into illegal access to computer information and the distribution of malicious software. It did not identify the alleged intelligence service responsible, disclose how many officials were affected, name the malware involved, or provide any technical indicators that would allow independent verification of the claims. As things stand, the FSB has revealed the accusation but not the proof.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

02 Jun 2026 9:00pm GMT

Microsoft missed the boat on apps, so get ready for agents.

02 Jun 2026 8:47pm GMT

Vim Classic 8.3 arrives as a long-term support fork of Vim, based on Vim 8.2 and maintained without generative AI tools.

02 Jun 2026 7:59pm GMT

Red Hat cloud services npm packages were compromised in a supply chain attack that used a preinstall script to steal developer and CI secrets.

02 Jun 2026 5:48pm GMT

Clonezilla Live 3.3.2 updates its Debian Sid base, adds Linux kernel 7.0, Partclone 0.3.47, and switches image encryption to gocryptfs.

02 Jun 2026 2:50pm GMT