Alibaba Group’s global mathematics competition recently opened for applications, calling math enthusiasts and developers worldwide to join and solve math challenges.

Math enthusiasts from all backgrounds can register on Alibaba’s research institute DAMO Academy’s website from this week until early April. Entrants must pass a preliminary round based on real-world math problems before reaching the final, which tests foundational math skills across five subject areas. The final is conducted online.

This year, the competition will, for the first time, include a track for AI models, where individual developers, academic institutes, and AI startups from all backgrounds can participate. In the preliminary round, they can use any large language model to solve the math problems in under 48 hours.

The judging panel will then evaluate the answers based on the models’ innovation, logic, and efficiency in solving the mathematical challenges. The winner in the AI model track can win a prize of $10,000.

“The introduction of AI brings a new perspective to the competition, helping the public become more aware of AI’s capabilities in logical thinking and problem-solving,” the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition organizing committee told Alizila.

AI models still need to work on solving complex mathematics problems due to less robust reasoning skills. As math involves multiple steps of reasoning and planning, most AI models still need to be capable of solving undergraduate-level or more advanced mathematical problems.

“Perhaps shortly, AI will have the ability to solve math competitions better than humans, and we will see some early signs of this in the current competition,” said Ivan Fesenko, a member of the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition’s steering committee and professor at the Institute of Theoretical Sciences at Westlake University.