OpenAI claims it solved an 80-year-old math problem — for real this time
OpenAI claims it solved an 80-year-old math problem — for real this time
OpenAI 声称解决了一个 80 年前的数学难题——这次是真的
OpenAI claims its new reasoning model has produced an original mathematical proof disproving a famous unsolved conjecture in geometry, which was first posed by Paul Erdős in 1946. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because this isn’t the first time OpenAI has made such a bold claim. OpenAI 声称其新的推理模型已经给出了一个原创的数学证明，推翻了 1946 年由保罗·埃尔德什（Paul Erdős）首次提出的一个著名的几何学未解猜想。如果这听起来很耳熟，那是因为这已经不是 OpenAI 第一次做出如此大胆的声明了。
Seven months ago, the AI giant’s former VP Kevin Weil posted on X: “GPT-5 found solutions to 10 (!) previously unsolved Erdős problems and made progress on 11 others.” It turns out, GPT-5 didn’t actually solve those problems; it just found solutions that already existed in the literature. Taunts from rivals like Yann LeCun and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis followed, and Weil promptly took down his premature post. 七个月前，这家 AI 巨头的前副总裁凯文·威尔（Kevin Weil）曾在 X 上发文称：“GPT-5 找到了 10 个（！）此前未解的埃尔德什问题的解决方案，并在另外 11 个问题上取得了进展。”事实证明，GPT-5 并没有真正解决这些问题；它只是找到了文献中已经存在的解决方案。随后，来自 Yann LeCun 和 Google DeepMind 首席执行官德米斯·哈萨比斯（Demis Hassabis）等竞争对手的嘲讽接踵而至，威尔也迅速删除了那条草率的帖子。
Today, at least, it seems OpenAI didn’t make the same mistake twice. Alongside the announcement, the company published companion remarks in support of the disproof from mathematicians like Noga Alon, Melanie Wood, and Thomas Bloom, who maintains the Erdos Problems website, and previously called Weil’s post “a dramatic misrepresentation.” 至少在今天，OpenAI 似乎没有重蹈覆辙。在发布公告的同时，该公司还公布了数学家们对这一反证的支持性评论，其中包括诺加·阿隆（Noga Alon）、梅兰妮·伍德（Melanie Wood）以及维护“埃尔德什问题”网站的托马斯·布鲁姆（Thomas Bloom），后者曾称威尔之前的帖子是“严重的歪曲事实”。
“For nearly 80 years, mathematicians believed the best possible solutions looked roughly like square grids,” OpenAI posted on X. “An OpenAI model has now disproved that belief, discovering an entirely new family of constructions that performs better.” The company said this marks “the first time AI has autonomously solved a prominent open problem central to a field of mathematics.” “近 80 年来，数学家们一直认为最优解看起来大致像方形网格，”OpenAI 在 X 上写道。“现在，一个 OpenAI 模型推翻了这一信念，发现了一个表现更好的全新构造族。”该公司表示，这标志着“人工智能首次自主解决了一个数学领域核心的著名未解难题”。
The proof, per OpenAI, came from a new general-purpose reasoning model, not a system specifically designed to solve math problems or even this problem in particular. OpenAI says this is significant because it means AI systems are now more capable of holding together long, difficult chains of reasoning and connecting ideas across fields in ways researchers may not have previously explored. That has implications for biology, physics, engineering, and medicine. 据 OpenAI 称，该证明来自一个新的通用推理模型，而不是专门为解决数学问题或特定问题而设计的系统。OpenAI 表示，这一点意义重大，因为它意味着 AI 系统现在更有能力维持长且复杂的推理链，并以研究人员此前可能未曾探索过的方式跨领域连接思想。这对生物学、物理学、工程学和医学都具有深远影响。
“AI is helping us to more fully explore the cathedral of mathematics we have built over the centuries,” Bloom said in a statement. “What other unseen wonders are waiting in the wings?” “人工智能正在帮助我们更充分地探索我们几个世纪以来建立的数学殿堂，”布鲁姆在一份声明中说道。“还有哪些未见的奇迹正在等待被发现呢？”