OpenAI solved hundreds of math problems—one killed a problem a mathematician saved cognac for since 2010
GarrisonLovely · x · 2026-10-28
A piece by Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz illustrates the impact of OpenAI's release of hundreds of solved math problems: logician Justin Moore had cherished one problem (about non-amenable groups and Thompson's F) for 19 years and bought a bottle of XO cognac near Marseille in 2010, planning to open it with collaborators when it fell.
The problem was instead "killed by a machine"—"just another trophy in OpenAI's bag, presented like severed rhino heads." A vivid signal that frontier models are closing off open problems mathematicians have invested lifetimes in.
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