The Rundown: Doctor solves 22-year math problem with ChatGPT

🧮 Doctor solves 22-year math problem with ChatGPTImage source: Alextownsend.net

The Rundown: Beijing neurosurgery resident Shanmu Jin proved Crouzeix’s Conjecture, a matrix problem unsolved since 2004, with GPT-5.6 Sol surfacing the result after a 16-hour autonomous session in ChatGPT Work.

The details: Jin reached the problem through brain-ultrasound research, teaching himself advanced math after undergraduate geology and medical training. His setup denied the model internet access and used swarms of subagents against each other, a recipe borrowed from one of OpenAI’s math prompts. Formal peer review is pending, but Cornell’s Alex Townsend, Anne Greenbaum, and the problem’s own author have all verified the proof.

Why it matters: Math is having a wild AI summer, and it’s not only the field’s own experts landing the breakthroughs. That might sting for professional mathematicians, but their role is shifting rather than shrinking. When a proof can come from anyone with a ChatGPT subscription, verifying it ends up becoming a scarce, in-demand skill.
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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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