Inside Meta’s “List of 44”

OpenAI’s experimental large language model has reportedly reached gold medal–level performance on the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), appropriately solving five of the six official problems. In keeping with OpenAI, the model produced fully natural language proofs under standard contest conditions, graded anonymously by former medalists.

Unlike DeepMind’s AlphaGeometry, which blends neural networks with symbolic search tailored specifically for geometry, OpenAI’s system stays a general-purpose language model, trained mainly through reinforcement learning and extensive test-time compute, without IMO-specific design. This result, led by researcher Alexander Wei’s team, is described as a step toward human-level creative reasoning, with some calling it a breakthrough in abstract mathematical problem solving.

While other models, including Gemini 2.5 Pro and Grok 4, failed to achieve bronze, this model produced detailed solutions graded anonymously by former IMO medalists. Tworek noted the breakthrough got here from the identical reinforcement learning system powering OpenAI’s recent AI agent, though public release may only occur by year-end. Their GPT-5, a separate system, stays planned for release soon.

Nonetheless, outstanding mathematician Terence Tao advises caution. Tao argues that apparent AI success could be heavily influenced by how the evaluation is about up, comparable to letting human students work in teams, use calculators, or take days moderately than hours. If an AI submits only its best attempt after massive parallel sampling or advantages from hidden prompt tuning, it may dramatically inflate perceived capability.

Without transparent and controlled testing protocols matching real contest conditions, Tao warns, comparisons with human contestants risk being misleading. The corporate emphasized that this IMO model is separate from GPT-5, built by a small research team exploring general reasoning moderately than task-specific approaches. Read more.

Leaked documents reveal Meta’s “List of 44,” an elite AI team assembled by Mark Zuckerberg to chase AGI and rival OpenAI and DeepMind. Roughly 40% of members are ex‑OpenAI staff, half are of Chinese origin, and over 75% hold PhDs from top institutions. Focused on large language models, multimodal reasoning, and RLHF, this group is backed by rumored compensation reaching $100 million for key hires. Analysts say the list signals Meta’s shift from social media to frontier AI, deepening the worldwide talent war.

Insiders claim the team’s mission targets superintelligence beyond short‑term chatbots, while critics query whether high‑pay “mercenary” teams can match purpose‑driven research. Confirmed names include GPT‑4o contributors and former Gemini and Muse architects, highlighting Meta’s aggressive bid to leapfrog GPT‑5 and Gemini‑Ultra. The leak also stirs geopolitical scrutiny given the team’s demographics and Meta’s global infrastructure footprint. Read more.

DuckDuckGo is adding a brand new privacy-focused choice to its search engine: the power to cover AI-generated images from search results. Users can activate the filter from the Images tab via a drop-down menu labeled “AI images,” or toggle it within the settings under “Hide AI-Generated Images.”

The feature answers growing complaints about “AI slop,” low-quality, synthetic content cluttering search results. The filter works by drawing on curated open-source blocklists, including lists from uBlockOrigin and the Huge AI Blocklist project. While DuckDuckGo acknowledges it won’t catch every AI image, it significantly cuts down visible synthetic content. Read more.