September 23, 2026
Mathematicians cannot read the AI proof: OpenAI's 166 pages
On 23 September, mathematician James Maynard told NPR that it is still difficult to extract human understanding from OpenAI's 166-page proof. Around 10 000 agents obtained the solution in 88 hours. GPT-6 Astra spent another 17 hours on Lean formalization.
Previously, a mathematician read a proof to see the line of reasoning. Now OpenAI has published the text and a Lean formalization: the formal notation lets a machine verify the steps, while people still have to unpack the idea itself.
Practical value. Vibe coding can already take code through formal verification, but a verified result does not replace an explanation that lets a colleague understand the solution.
On 17 September, Konstantin, Ignatova and Vikol released a preprint on power in OpenAI's construction; they did not verify the construction's correctness.
