"How much beauty have we lost?" Mathematicians react with shock and disgust as OpenAI bulldozes their field
OpenAI released over 700 manuscripts claiming solutions to hundreds of open math problems, shocking leading mathematicians.
On October 6, 2026, OpenAI published more than 700 manuscripts on GitHub, claiming solutions to hundreds of open mathematics problems. The blog Proofs and Prompts collected over 100 researcher responses; some papers were later withdrawn and others were criticized as poorly written. Fields Medalists including Peter Scholze and Hugo Duminil-Copin described shock, while Terence Tao said some proofs contained useful ideas but lacked people who could explain them. Scholze also warned similar systems might someday break widely used encryption, and OpenAI reportedly reached only a weaker variant of the Riemann Hypothesis.
- OpenAI released 700-plus math manuscripts on GitHub on October 6, 2026.
- Some papers were withdrawn; critics called others poorly written or unreadable.
- Fields Medalists Scholze and Duminil-Copin reported shock and urged patience.
- Scholze warned the systems might eventually break common encryption.
- OpenAI claimed only a weaker quasi-Riemann Hypothesis, not the full conjecture.
From the original article
6 min read at the-decoder.com
OpenAI published more than 700 AI-generated manuscripts claiming solutions to open math problems. A math blog then collected over 100 responses from researchers, ranging from fascination with new ideas to existential fears and grief over a lost way of working. Fields Medalist Hugo Duminil-Copin wrote, "I am paralysed."
By Matthias Bastian · the-decoder.com
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