4 ms·

Also, have there been examples of researchers not affiliated with OpenAI (or another LLM creator), who have done something similar? Another question I have is

Also, have there been examples of researchers not affiliated with OpenAI (or another LLM creator), who have done something similar? Another question I have is whether or not OpenAI 'simply' hired capable combinatorics researchers to work on problems, and they have, and the use of the model is incidental / secondary to their work.

traes 3mo ago
> Also, have there been examples of researchers not affiliated with OpenAI (or another LLM creator), who have done something similar? A couple small ones that I've seen (example here [0]), but not anything of the magnitude that OpenAI and Anthropic have put out. Likely just related to token limits. > Another question I have is whether or not OpenAI 'simply' hired capable combinatorics researchers to work on problems, and they have, and the use of the model is incidental / secondary to their work. I think their output has reached a level that precludes this possibility, but I of course don't have any hard proof. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1uxj3cy/after_openais_cdc_proof_announcement_gpt56_used_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1uxj3cy/after_openais...
- irthomasthomas 3mo ago
  Why you think that?
  - azan_ 3mo ago
    I guess that's because there are serious problems on which many professional mathematicians worked on years. If it was just a matter of hiring an expert, they would've been solved long time ago.
    - irthomasthomas 3mo ago
      I guess expert+chatgpt beats chatgpt alone, so why not hire top experts to drive the search?
energy123 3mo ago
Many less important Erdos problems have been solved by amateurs prompting ChatGPT 5.{3,4,5,6} Pro using their $200 subscription.
kittoes 3mo ago
https://blob.byteterrace.com/public/bds-theorem.html https://blob.byteterrace.com/public/bds-theorem.html I have no affiliation whatsoever with any AI company, nor any formal education outside high school, for what it's worth. Simply being curious and persistent can get you quite far in my anecdotal experience.
brighteyes 3mo ago
Yes, here is another example of major work in this area: https://arxiv.org/html/2605.22763v1 https://arxiv.org/html/2605.22763v1 > Our most capable agent autonomously resolved 9 of 353 open Erdős problems at the per-problem cost of a few hundred dollars, proved 44/492 OEIS conjectures
- einpoklum 3mo ago
  The actual quote: > Our full-featured agent autonomously solved 9 Erdős problems out of 353 attempted, including two questions that had been open for 56 years Note _had_ been open, not _have_ been open. Can you clarify?
  - jsnell 3mo ago
    The original was an actual quote? But "had" still doesn't mean what you are implying: once the model solved the problems and the solutions were verified, the problems weren't open any more, so a later description using the past tense is totally consistent.

traes 3mo ago

> Also, have there been examples of researchers not affiliated with OpenAI (or another LLM creator), who have done something similar? A couple small ones that I've seen (example here [0]), but not anything of the magnitude that OpenAI and Anthropic have put out. Likely just related to token limits. > Another question I have is whether or not OpenAI 'simply' hired capable combinatorics researchers to work on problems, and they have, and the use of the model is incidental / secondary to their work. I think their output has reached a level that precludes this possibility, but I of course don't have any hard proof. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1uxj3cy/after_openais_cdc_proof_announcement_gpt56_used_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1uxj3cy/after_openais...

irthomasthomas 3mo ago
Why you think that?
- azan_ 3mo ago
  I guess that's because there are serious problems on which many professional mathematicians worked on years. If it was just a matter of hiring an expert, they would've been solved long time ago.
  - irthomasthomas 3mo ago
    I guess expert+chatgpt beats chatgpt alone, so why not hire top experts to drive the search?

energy123 3mo ago

Many less important Erdos problems have been solved by amateurs prompting ChatGPT 5.{3,4,5,6} Pro using their $200 subscription.

kittoes 3mo ago

https://blob.byteterrace.com/public/bds-theorem.html https://blob.byteterrace.com/public/bds-theorem.html I have no affiliation whatsoever with any AI company, nor any formal education outside high school, for what it's worth. Simply being curious and persistent can get you quite far in my anecdotal experience.

brighteyes 3mo ago

Yes, here is another example of major work in this area: https://arxiv.org/html/2605.22763v1 https://arxiv.org/html/2605.22763v1 > Our most capable agent autonomously resolved 9 of 353 open Erdős problems at the per-problem cost of a few hundred dollars, proved 44/492 OEIS conjectures

einpoklum 3mo ago
The actual quote: > Our full-featured agent autonomously solved 9 Erdős problems out of 353 attempted, including two questions that had been open for 56 years Note _had_ been open, not _have_ been open. Can you clarify?
- jsnell 3mo ago
  The original was an actual quote? But "had" still doesn't mean what you are implying: once the model solved the problems and the solutions were verified, the problems weren't open any more, so a later description using the past tense is totally consistent.