An internal reasoning model from OpenAI has disproved the unit distance conjecture posed by Paul Erdős. OpenAI announced the result alongside a companion paper written by nine external mathematicians who verified, shortened, and commented on the proof.
Thomas Bloom’s reaction was “dampened slightly” when he learned it was a disproof rather than an affirmative solution. The original AI proof was “completely valid,” but human authors “significantly improved” it. Only Will Sawin’s refinement produced the concrete measure δ ≈ 0.014.
Terence Tao argues mathematical practice is experiencing “proof indigestion” — AI can generate and verify proofs faster than human digestion (understanding, contextualizing, building on results) can keep up.
Unlike OpenAI’s discredited October 2025 Erdős announcement, this result survived independent mathematical scrutiny.