OpenAI announced three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, claims its AI models have disproven the Exponential Time Hypothesis – a fundamental assumption that underpins computer science. The simplest way would be to try every possible combination of true or false for each part of the puzzle. ETH proposes that although it may be possible to do this quicker with shortcuts, the amount of work needed has to grow exponentially as the puzzle gets bigger.
OpenAI, however, says its models have devised an algorithm that can beat the previously assumed speed limit for solving logical puzzles, apparently proving ETH false. Many computer science findings assume ETH is true. If it isn’t, the conclusions they establish about computational limits become useless.
ETH Is linked to a longstanding maths problem known as P versus NP, which concerns whether a problem whose answer is easy to check is also easy to solve. If ETH were true, it would have implied that the answer was no. But disproving ETH doesn’t mean the answer is yes.
The result was announced alongside other breakthroughs in maths and physics in a blog post on 26 October. In mathematics, OpenAI says its AI has proved a 1991 conjecture that waves cannot remain intensely focused for long. If confirmed, this would also answer longstanding questions about how thin a shape can be while also containing line segments that point in every direction, as well as how waves spread.
In theoretical physics, OpenAI claims to have proven that quantum field theories, including quantum chromodynamics, which describes the strong force holding quarks together, make sense mathematically, rather than just producing predictions that match experiments. The findings also touch on the existence of pure Yang–Mills theory, part of a famous million-dollar mathematics problem, but don’t resolve the entire challenge. That work hasn’t been released publicly while an external group led by Nobel laureate David Gross examines it.
OpenAI says it verified the ETH result using Lean, a piece of software that checks mathematical proofs. Stefan Szeider at TU Wien in Austria has looked at what OpenAI has released and says he expects it to withstand scrutiny, although he says researchers still need to check that the formally proven statement means what its authors say it means. To do so, OpenAI has commissioned an independent group including researchers Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi, who helped propose ETH, to examine the findings.
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