"AI found new elliptic curves in days" claim disputed: it was brute-force compute on known methods
tak3sh8 · x · 2026-09-17
Scientific American reported that an AI discovered the two most complicated elliptic curves yet in days, after mathematicians needed 18 years for the last breakthrough. But mathematician mathandcobb disputes the framing: the curves were found by throwing lots of compute at the known Elkies–Klagsbrun construction and method, not by AI doing novel mathematics. A cautionary note on hyped "AI solves math" coverage.
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