Shtetl-Optimized · 2026-10-07 · notable
Scott Aaronson — 'The Mathocalypse' after OpenAI's math release
Scott Aaronson calls OpenAI's release of AI-made math results, including a claimed proof of the Unique Games Conjecture, one of the biggest days in math history, and notes no human has understood most of the proofs yet.
A complexity theorist reacts to OpenAI's math drop: a huge day for math, and a race to understand proofs no human wrote.
What is it?
"The Mathocalypse" is a post on Scott Aaronson's blog Shtetl-Optimized about OpenAI's October release of results from an internal model. Aaronson calls it "one of the biggest days in mathematical history" and lists results he finds striking, from a claimed proof of Subhash Khot's Unique Games Conjecture to new bounds in complexity theory.
How does it work?
The post walks through a sample of the claimed results, then compares two ways labs share AI math. In the "OpenAI model", a messy AI proof is published and humans race to digest it. In the "Anthropic model", the company picks human mathematicians to present the work, as with the Alman–Williams results, where Aaronson says an Anthropic model supplied the key idea.
Why does it matter?
Aaronson stresses that some results have Lean certificates but "no human has understood just about any of these proofs yet". He reports the model solved about 5% of the open problems it tried, and argues that people who dismiss the work as "AI slop" or contest puzzles are not updating on the evidence.
Who is it for?
mathematicians, theoretical computer scientists, anyone following AI for science