Source: Michael Tsai
OpenAI's o1 model solved the Erdős unit distance problem—a decades-old geometry conjecture—without human intervention, demonstrating that LLMs can now tackle formal mathematics at a level competitive with specialized automated theorem provers. This marks a shift in how AI capabilities are measured: from language mimicry to performance on constrained, verifiable problems where correctness is non-negotiable. The significance lies not in the mathematics itself but in whether AI labs can now credibly claim progress on reasoning tasks that have traditionally gatekept intellectual authority.