The world has seen plenty of scary cybersecurity threats in recent years, but nothing quite like what emerged last week. The new threat came in the form of a document drop from OpenAI that The Economist proclaimed to be “judgment day for mathematics” and others simply dubbed “The Mathpocalypse.” This isn’t just idle media chatter. In the view of a prominent cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins, “We might lose public key cryptography.” Hoo boy.
So what exactly is going on? It’s helpful to know that the OpenAI documents in question don’t describe a scary new way to hack global computers. Instead, they reveal the solution to hundreds of math problems that top mathematicians have struggled for decades to solve. And contrary to some reports, the OpenAI math dump isn’t going to accelerate the arrival of so-called “Q-day” when quantum computing cracks popular encryption algorithms.
The real reason the OpenAI documents have sparked an uproar is that they signify the arrival of a new species of mathematical super-genius—one that may be capable of finding flaws in the algorithms we use to encrypt banking passwords, email accounts, and the rest of our digital lives. These algorithms have been part of daily life for years, and have long been regarded as sound by top cryptographers. They may hold up for years to come. But if there are flaws in these algorithms, it’s a matter of time before someone uses powerful new AI math tools to find them—and potentially wreak havoc with the world’s financial system.
