That Erdos problem solution is believed by quite a few to be a previous result found in the literature, just used in a slightly different way. It also seems not a lack of progress but simply no one cared to give it a go.
That’s a really fantastic capability, but not super surprising.
You're thinking of a previous report from a month ago, #897 or #481, or the one from two weeks ago, #728. There's a new one from a week ago, #205, which is genuinely novel, although it is still a relatively "shallow" result.
Terence Tao maintains a list [1] of AI attempts (successful and otherwise). #205 is currently the only success in section 1, the "full solution for which subsequent literature review did not find new relevant prior partial or full solutions" section - but it is in that section.
As to speed, as far as I know the recent results are all due to GPT 5.2, which is barely a month old, or Aristotle, which is a system built on top of some frontier LLMs and which has only been accessible to the public for a month or two. I have seen multiple mathematicians report that GPT-5.2 is a major improvement in proof-writing, e.g. [2]
patagurbon|1 month ago
That’s a really fantastic capability, but not super surprising.
bakkoting|1 month ago
Terence Tao maintains a list [1] of AI attempts (successful and otherwise). #205 is currently the only success in section 1, the "full solution for which subsequent literature review did not find new relevant prior partial or full solutions" section - but it is in that section.
As to speed, as far as I know the recent results are all due to GPT 5.2, which is barely a month old, or Aristotle, which is a system built on top of some frontier LLMs and which has only been accessible to the public for a month or two. I have seen multiple mathematicians report that GPT-5.2 is a major improvement in proof-writing, e.g. [2]
[1] https://github.com/teorth/erdosproblems/wiki/AI-contribution...
[2] https://x.com/AcerFur/status/1999314476320063546
utopiah|1 month ago
computerex|1 month ago