The Mathocalypse
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
OpenAI released 372 AI-generated mathematical proofs, including a solution to the Unique Games Conjecture.
Scott Aaronson reports that OpenAI released 372 major mathematical results, among them a proof of the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC), which his wife Dana Moshkovitz had worked on. The AI model used roughly 3 hours of GPT-Pro compute per problem and solved about 5% of the 8,000 problems attempted. Aaronson lists other breakthroughs: L=BPL, improved Fourier transform and integer multiplication bounds, a positive solution to the Unitary Synthesis Problem, and a lower bound for the determinantal complexity of the permanent. He notes that the proofs are so poorly written that human understanding requires AI assistance, and compares the situation to a hunter-gatherer suddenly confronted with a resort.
What commenters are saying
Commenters split on the value of AI-generated proofs. The top comment dismisses the work as "statistically guided brute forcing" that adds no understanding, but others counter that evolution uses similar methods and biology has value. A second top comment points out that Aaronson's post passes AI-detection tests because of realistically child-like dialogue, contrasting with ChatGPT's awkward attempts. Several comments defend asymptotic improvements (e.g., O(n log 0.9999999999999 n)) as genuine breakthroughs that refute longstanding conjectures about optimality. A PhD advisor notes the shift: theses must now test understanding rather than quantity of publication.