OpenAI Claims AI Solved Kakeya, Disproved ETH

OpenAI announced three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics. The model proved the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), which has been used as a computational hardness premise in hundreds of papers, is false; the result has been formally verified in Lean and will be checked by a group led by the hypothesis's proposers Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi, together with MIT professor Ryan Williams.

The model proved the local smoothing conjecture in arbitrary dimensions, thereby resolving the Kakeya conjecture and the Stein restriction conjecture; on the physics side, it provided a rigorous existence proof for four-dimensional quantum field theories including quantum chromodynamics, among which is an existence proof for pure Yang–Mills theory related to the Millennium Prize Problem, to be checked by a group led by Nobel laureate in physics David Gross.

OpenAI views these manuscripts as raw research data and is experimenting with a new release approach, reaching out to external experts to act as shepherds, organizing groups to understand the new results. For the math result, OpenAI released the AI output, leaving researchers free to organize their own efforts to explain it; for computer science, an external group of collaborators will explain the result while the AI output is publicly available; for physics, an external group defers on the release of materials.

OpenAI states it does not seek academic credit for the discoveries produced by its internal models, and that working-group members participate voluntarily, unpaid and independently. These results still await independent verification by the academic community.