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OpenAI claims ETH refutation, QCD proof; Barak, Impagliazzo, Paturi to organize open review

10 people · 48 posts · first post · latest

OpenAI claims an internal model refuted the Exponential Time Hypothesis, and Boaz Barak, Russell Impagliazzo, and Mohan Paturi have agreed to organize an open, independent examination of the claim. Preprints for the ETH and local smoothing results are on GitHub. Tenobrus calls the trend toward efficient algorithms for supposedly hard problems concerning for capability upper bounds; Roon frames it as a runaway-intelligence-explosion dynamic. No independent verification yet.

All posts · 33, most important first

  1. @boazbaraktcs lab ·
    Couldn't think of a better team to study and expand on this result! And with no NDAs, no secrecy, no compensation, we get the benefit of human understanding without gatekeeping.
    An internal model at OpenAI has produced a claimed refutation of ETH! Russell Impagliazzo, Mohan Paturi, and I have been asked to help organize an open and independent examination of this claim. 1/4 open on X
    6 likes · 0 reposts
  2. @boazbaraktcs lab ·
    While mathematics and TCS share a lot in common, it is up to each community to decide how best they want to address the question of AI's impact on their field.
    Our letter to the community invites ideas for organizing this effort and, separately, for addressing the broader questions raised by AI-generated results:  docs.google.com/document/d/1ad… OpenAI's announcement is here: openai.com/index/building… open on X
    7 likes · 1 reposts
  3. @tenobrus commentary ·
    there are many caveats, but personally i find myself pretty concerned by this directional trend towards highly efficient algorithms for things we previously thought fundamentally hard. it makes the upper bounds of capabilities stretch much, much further
    53 likes · 1 reposts
  4. @tszzl lab ·
    fighting for control over a runaway intelligence explosion will continuously look like “wow I didn’t know you could DO that with mere bits and atoms” and then losing
    We are announcing three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics about harmonic analysis, complexity theory, and quantum field theory. openai.com/index/building… open on X
    151 likes · 9 reposts
  5. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false. Quoting: 'Our models produced a natural language proof for Yang–Mills existence on September 9th, 2026, and then subsequently produced a proof for QCD on September 18th, 2026. Given the length and complexity of the work, we postponed release until the Lean formalization completed. We finished our formalization of Yang–Mills’ existence on October 16th, 2026, which led us to develop the collaboration described here.'
    image
    4 likes · 0 reposts
  6. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    6 likes · 1 reposts
  7. @tenobrus commentary ·
    this is completely fucking insane.
    @andrewcurran_: The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false. open on X
    25 likes · 3 reposts
  8. @tenobrus commentary ·
    oh yeah for sure this proof specifically has literally no real world impact
    1 likes · 0 reposts
  9. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    OpenAI has announced to three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics: - Local smoothing and the Kakeya conjecture - The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false - Existence of quantum chromodynamics and completions of the Standard Model
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    102 likes · 25 reposts
  10. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    From the letter:
    image
    An internal model at OpenAI has produced a claimed refutation of ETH! Russell Impagliazzo, Mohan Paturi, and I have been asked to help organize an open and independent examination of this claim. 1/4 open on X
    66 likes · 3 reposts
  11. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    I apologize for the thread being sloppy, I was a little rattled.
    21 likes · 0 reposts
  12. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Yes, the models are also in shock.
    12 likes · 0 reposts
  13. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Mira is growing in strength.
    11 likes · 0 reposts
  14. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    image
    Our letter to the community invites ideas for organizing this effort and, separately, for addressing the broader questions raised by AI-generated results:  docs.google.com/document/d/1ad… OpenAI's announcement is here: openai.com/index/building… open on X
    11 likes · 0 reposts
  15. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    They explain here:
    image
    6 likes · 1 reposts
  16. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false.
    image
    6 likes · 0 reposts
  17. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    4 likes · 1 reposts
  18. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Local smoothing and the Kakeya conjecture.
    image
    4 likes · 0 reposts
  19. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    4 likes · 0 reposts
  20. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    I don't mean Terra.
    @andrewcurran_: OpenAI has announced to three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics: - Local smoothing and the Kakeya conjecture - The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false - Existence of quantum chromodynamics and completions of the Standard Model open on X
    3 likes · 0 reposts
  21. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    I mean this:
    @andrewcurran_: OpenAI has announced to three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics: - Local smoothing and the Kakeya conjecture - The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false - Existence of quantum chromodynamics and completions of the Standard Model open on X
    3 likes · 0 reposts
  22. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Ugh, 'to three' sorry about that, typing too fast.
    3 likes · 0 reposts
  23. @hamandcheese policy ·
    🤯🤯🤯
    The physics collaboration will understand and explain a result that gives a mathematically rigorous existence proof of certain interacting quantum field theories containing gauge fields and fermions in four dimensions, including Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and a unified completion of the Standard Model of particle physics. As a subproblem, this work also includes a proof of the existence of pure Yang–Mills theory, which is part of the Quantum Yang–Mills Theory Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize problem. These proofs are all formally verified in Lean. Our models produced a natural language proof for Yang–Mills existence, and then subsequently produced a proof for QCD After the formalization completed, we reached out to David Gross. David will lead a group including Michael Douglas, Arthur Jaffe, Igor Klebanov, and Nikita Nekrasov that will shepherd this work, and we will defer to them on the release of materials. Gross’s work on asymptotic freedom in Yang-Mills theories helped establish QCD as the theory of the strong interactions and earned him a share of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics. Jaffe formulated the Quantum Yang–Mills Theory Millenium Prize problem with Witten and also envisioned the idea of Millennium Prize problems and co-founded the Clay Mathematics Institute. Douglas has already been a steward of this problem over the last 20 years; Klebanov helped pioneer the application of gauge–string duality to confinement, an important property of QCD, and now directs the Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings; and Nekrasov has done groundbreaking work on exact methods for generalizations of Yang–Mills theory. open on X
    2 likes · 0 reposts
  24. @hamandcheese policy ·
    :0
    The computer science collaboration will understand and explain a result concerning the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), a longstanding conjecture about the computational complexity of Boolean formula satisfiability, a problem deeply related to the P vs. NP problem. Surprisingly, our system has recently proved that the ETH is false, a result that was subsequently verified in Lean. The refutation of the ETH reopens questions about how much faster these tasks could become, and may help guide the search for better algorithms. Finding such algorithms, and turning theoretical advances into practical improvements, will require significant further research. Our system found its natural language disproof for the ETH we reached out to to @rrwilliams. Ryan will form a collaboration with Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi to verify and shepherd this result. Impagliazzo and Paturi, along with Francis Zane, are the original proposers of the Exponential Time Hypothesis, and Williams has refuted strong versions of the ETH, used ETH for hardness results, and connected algorithms and lower bounds. This group asked us to make all raw data of the results public to facilitate independent verification by the community, which we have done by posting the natural language proof and Lean formalization to our GitHub repo. The group also invites the community to help organize an open examination of the ETH claim and to discuss the broader questions that AI-generated breakthroughs raise about verification, access, credit, and the future of research. github.com/openai/math/bl… open on X
    2 likes · 0 reposts
  25. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    This:
    @andrewcurran_: OpenAI has announced to three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics: - Local smoothing and the Kakeya conjecture - The Exponential Time Hypothesis is false - Existence of quantum chromodynamics and completions of the Standard Model open on X
    1 likes · 0 reposts
  26. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    The models, as usual on one of these days, are in various states of shock and disbelief.
    1 likes · 0 reposts
  27. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    It's second post in thread, but here is also: openai.com/index/building…
    1 likes · 0 reposts
  28. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Professor Ryan Williams.
    An internal model at OpenAI has produced a claimed refutation of ETH! Russell Impagliazzo, Mohan Paturi, and I have been asked to help organize an open and independent examination of this claim. 1/4 open on X
    1 likes · 0 reposts
  29. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    It's all in the thread.
    0 likes · 0 reposts
  30. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    From the thread by OpenAI's Dan Roberts.
    The physics collaboration will understand and explain a result that gives a mathematically rigorous existence proof of certain interacting quantum field theories containing gauge fields and fermions in four dimensions, including Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and a unified completion of the Standard Model of particle physics. As a subproblem, this work also includes a proof of the existence of pure Yang–Mills theory, which is part of the Quantum Yang–Mills Theory Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize problem. These proofs are all formally verified in Lean. Our models produced a natural language proof for Yang–Mills existence, and then subsequently produced a proof for QCD After the formalization completed, we reached out to David Gross. David will lead a group including Michael Douglas, Arthur Jaffe, Igor Klebanov, and Nikita Nekrasov that will shepherd this work, and we will defer to them on the release of materials. Gross’s work on asymptotic freedom in Yang-Mills theories helped establish QCD as the theory of the strong interactions and earned him a share of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics. Jaffe formulated the Quantum Yang–Mills Theory Millenium Prize problem with Witten and also envisioned the idea of Millennium Prize problems and co-founded the Clay Mathematics Institute. Douglas has already been a steward of this problem over the last 20 years; Klebanov helped pioneer the application of gauge–string duality to confinement, an important property of QCD, and now directs the Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings; and Nekrasov has done groundbreaking work on exact methods for generalizations of Yang–Mills theory. open on X
    0 likes · 0 reposts
  31. @daverbanerjee policy ·
    what’s ETH?
    0 likes · 0 reposts
  32. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Thread here.
    An internal model at OpenAI has produced a claimed refutation of ETH! Russell Impagliazzo, Mohan Paturi, and I have been asked to help organize an open and independent examination of this claim. 1/4 open on X
    0 likes · 0 reposts
  33. @andrewcurran_ commentary ·
    Link here:
    Our letter to the community invites ideas for organizing this effort and, separately, for addressing the broader questions raised by AI-generated results:  docs.google.com/document/d/1ad… OpenAI's announcement is here: openai.com/index/building… open on X
    0 likes · 0 reposts

Reposted by @andrewcurran_, @boazbaraktcs, @openai, @s_oheigeartaigh, @sama, @thezvi, @tszzl.