OpenAI Model Disproves Erdős’s 80-Year-Old Unit Distance Conjecture
OpenAI reasoning researchers Alexander Wei, Hongxun Wu and Lijie Chen say a general-purpose model disproved Paul Erdős’s 80-year-old unit distance conjecture, a central problem in discrete geometry, by finding a construction that beat the square-grid arrangement Erdős had proposed as essentially optimal. In the podcast, they argue the result is significant not just because of the problem’s status, but because the model was not a bespoke math system: given enough inference-time compute, it produced a proof idea that internal reviewers initially doubted and that other mathematicians quickly began using. Their broader claim is that AI is moving beyond contest math toward a collaborative role in research, where models solve hard problems and humans verify, interpret and extend the ideas.
OpenAI·Jun 4, 2026·12 min read
