Mathematician announces AI-generated proof he admits he can't understand, no Lean verification
ValerioCapraro · x · 2026-11-07
Valerio Capraro recounts a mathematician announcing a solution to the decades-old problem of whether ℤ is Diophantine in ℚ — claiming high confidence despite admitting he lacks the expertise to understand the proof, which has no Lean formal verification. The attached paper constructs a polynomial with 292 billion variables and claims consequences like refuting Mazur's conjecture. Capraro argues it's almost certainly an unverified AI-generated proof exemplifying "Epistemia": plausibility substituting for verification, driven by short-term incentives of followers and media attention.
Related event: Mathematician Uses AI to Prove ℤ Is Diophantine in ℚ(3 posts)→
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