The Rundown AI: GPT-5.2 makes a theoretical physics discovery


🔬 GPT-5.2 makes theoretical physics discovery
Image source: Lovart / The Rundown
The Rundown: OpenAI just published a new research preprint where GPT-5.2 independently discovered a mathematical formula and formally proved it was correct, marking what the company calls AI’s first original contribution to theoretical physics.
The details:
The paper tackles a problem in particle physics that was assumed solved, with 5.2 finding the existing answer was wrong and proposing a correct one. A specialized research version of 5.2 autonomously wrote the math proof in 12 hours, verified by physicists from Harvard, Cambridge, and Princeton. OAI’s Kevin Weil is credited as a co-author, with Harvard physicist Andrew Strominger saying the AI “chose a path no human would have tried.”
Why it matters: 

There will still be debate from skeptics over whether AI is truly capable of ‘new’ ideas, but the results are getting harder to argue with. AI being pointed at and challenging long-held beliefs in humanity’s most important scientific fields is starting to feel less like sci-fi and more like the very near future.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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