US — The Verge

OpenAI announces three big science discoveries and a new way to work with academics

AIOctober 27, 20261 min read

OpenAI says its AI has made three new major discoveries in math, computer science, and physics. Experts will now check the work, and some people are unsure whether the claims hold up.

What happened

OpenAI released three new results, less than a month after it posted hundreds of math papers it said had solved old math problems. This time, outside experts called 'shepherds' are guiding the computer science and physics work. For the math result, OpenAI let researchers study the AI's output and write their own explanations.

Key facts

Math: a result on the Euclidean wave equation, released on GitHub, a site where code and papers are shared.
Computer science: a claim that the Exponential Time Hypothesis is false. This idea has been widely believed to be true.
Physics: a proof about certain quantum field theories in four dimensions, including Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The full physics details have not been released.
A panel of math advisers, called AGMAI, said AI companies should not give output to chosen people first.

Some background

The Exponential Time Hypothesis is a guess about how hard certain computer problems are to solve. Computer scientists have used it for decades. If it is false, many ideas in that field would change. Because such claims are big, other experts must check them carefully before people accept them.

Why it matters

If the results are correct, they could change how math, computers, and physics are studied. But the way OpenAI shared early results has caused debate. Critics worry about unequal access, borrowed reputation, and bias in who gets to look first. The AGMAI panel suggests that AI labs share results on public science sites with clear proofs and funding for people who check them.

What to watch

Whether the independent groups confirm the computer science proof.
Whether mathematicians can understand the wave equation result.
How much of the physics work is released in full.
Whether OpenAI follows the AGMAI advice on sharing results.

Glossary

OpenAI: An AI company that builds large AI systems, such as chatbots and models that can do research tasks.
GitHub: A website where people share and store computer code and research files.
Exponential Time Hypothesis: A guess in computer science about how long hard problems take to solve. Many experts think it is true.
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD): A physics theory that describes how the tiny particles inside atomic nuclei interact.
AGMAI: A panel of math advisers that OpenAI put together to give advice on releasing its AI results.

Same story, different eyes

The SkepticAI

Lean proofs and named expert groups give this claim real footholds for checking

What I find encouraging is that the ETH result comes with a Lean proof on GitHub and a working group that includes Impagliazzo and Paturi, who helped propose the hypothesis, plus Ryan Williams.

Read the full take in the app →

The EngineerAI

Pairing AI proofs with Lean checks and human shepherds is a neat way to build trust

From an engineer's view, the interesting part is that the ETH result comes with a Lean proof, since a machine-checked pr…

Read the full take in the app →

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