GPT-5 "solved 10 Erdős problems": it located existing solutions
An OpenAI executive announced that GPT-5 had solved 10 previously open Erdős problems and made progress on 11 more; the problems were only 'open' in the sense that one database maintainer was unaware of the already-published solutions the model surfaced.
- Lab
- OpenAI
- Model
- GPT-5
- Field
- Mathematics
- Date
- 2025-10-19
What was found
OpenAI VP Kevin Weil posted that 'GPT-5 found solutions to 10 (!) previously unsolved Erdős problems.' Thomas Bloom, who maintains erdosproblems.com, replied that listing a problem as open there only means he personally was unaware of a solution, and that GPT-5 had found existing papers containing the solutions rather than proving anything new. The post was deleted; Demis Hassabis called the episode 'embarrassing' and Yann LeCun mocked it.
Novelty check
By definition, that is the whole point of the episode. The solutions existed in the published literature; GPT-5's contribution was locating them, a genuinely useful literature-search result that was misdescribed as original problem-solving.
Caveats and known objections
Retained as a cautionary entry and a direct companion to the GPT-5 convex-optimization case. The underlying literature search was real and valuable; only the 'solved previously unsolved problems' framing was false. This is distinct from the later, genuine GPT-5.2 + Aristotle resolution of Erdős #728.
Independent checks
Thomas Bloom (erdosproblems.com maintainer): the problems were already solved in the literature; no new proofs · link ↗
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Entry history (1 event)
- AddedEntered the registry graded Already known and Retrieval.
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Community discussion
Graded already known for verification and retrieval for autonomy. What these mean.
Cite this entry
whataifound.org. (2025). GPT-5 "solved 10 Erdős problems": it located existing solutions. whataifound.org: A Registry of AI Scientific and Mathematical Discoveries. https://whataifound.org/finding/2025-10-19-gpt5-erdos-retrievalBibTeX
@misc{whataifound-openai-2025-retrieval,
title = {GPT-5 "solved 10 Erdős problems": it located existing solutions},
author = {{whataifound.org}},
year = {2025},
howpublished = {whataifound.org: A Registry of AI Scientific and Mathematical Discoveries},
note = {Result by OpenAI. Verification: Already known. Autonomy: Retrieval.},
url = {https://whataifound.org/finding/2025-10-19-gpt5-erdos-retrieval}
}