An OpenAI general-purpose reasoning model has independently solved the planar unit distance problem — a famous open geometry question posed by Paul Erdős in 1946. External mathematicians verified the proof, marking the first time AI has autonomously solved a major open problem in mathematics.
An OpenAI general-purpose reasoning model independently disproved the Erdős unit distance conjecture — a central problem in discrete geometry open since 1946. This marks the first time in history that an AI has autonomously solved a prominent open math problem, verified by independent mathematicians including Princeton's Noga Alon.
The technique GPT-5.4 Pro used to solve Erdos Problem 1196 has been applied to other problems, including another conjecture unsolved for 60 years.
HN read this math story less as another "AI did it" headline and more as a case where a model pointed at a route humans had not tried. The part that stuck was the expert cleanup work after the GPT-5.4 Pro draft, not the one-shot prompt itself.