In a data insight published September 18, 2026, Epoch AI’s Tara Abrishami reported that the share of arXiv math preprints acknowledging AI use rose from 4 percent in April 2026 to 25 percent in August 2026. About 6 percent of August preprints credited AI with a substantial research contribution rather than routine assistance.
The analysis covered math preprints on arXiv, classifying acknowledgment text with language models and checking a sample by hand. The rise was not driven by an influx of new AI-assisted authors: restricting to papers with at least one author who published regularly before 2023, the acknowledgment rate stays within 1.5 percentage points of the overall figure each month.
The caveat is that this counts disclosures, not use. A jump from 4 to 25 percent in four months reflects changing norms about acknowledging AI as well as changing practice, and the line between a substantial contribution and assistance is a judgment call. Even so, it is a rare hard number on how quickly working mathematicians, not just AI labs, have folded these tools into published research.