On July 23, local time, new Fields Medal winner Jacob Zimmerman announced a shift to artificial intelligence security research and will join OpenAI. Several OpenAI research leaders have publicly welcomed them to join. Zimmerman's concerns about AI risks are not recent. In 2025, he co-published a paper with Andrew Creech to systematically sort out the potential paths that artificial intelligence could cause humans to become close to extinction. The paper does not believe that AI will cause human extinction as an inevitable result, but rather hopes to promote relevant preventive measures. Zimmerman has stopped enrolling new math doctoral students due to the belief that AI may surpass mathematicians for mathematical research within the next two years. He said he doesn't want to train students into a career field that may soon change or even disappear significantly.

On July 23, local time, new Fields Medal winner Jacob Zimmerman announced a shift to artificial intelligence security research and will join OpenAI. Several OpenAI research leaders have publicly welcomed them to join. Zimmerman's concerns about AI risks are not recent. In 2025, he co-published a paper with Andrew Creech to systematically sort out the potential paths that artificial intelligence could cause humans to become close to extinction. The paper does not believe that AI will cause human extinction as an inevitable result, but rather hopes to promote relevant preventive measures. Zimmerman has stopped enrolling new math doctoral students due to the belief that AI may surpass mathematicians for mathematical research within the next two years. He said he doesn't want to train students into a career field that may soon change or even disappear significantly.