# AI just solved an 80-year-old 'Erdős problem,' and mathematicians are amazed

_Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT · AI · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![AI just solved an 80-year-old 'Erdős problem,' and mathematicians are amazed — Primary](https://static.scientificamerican.com/dam/asset/dfbbb93b-a7c7-40f3-b930-0f02f06e4693/GettyImages-2259697316.jpg?m=1779377306.136&w=1200)

An AI system solved an 80-year-old geometry conjecture known as the Erdős unit distance problem, OpenAI announced yesterday.

The company said the result was verified by mathematicians including Timothy Gowers of the University of Cambridge and Daniel Litt of the University of Toronto, who described the AI's method as clever and elegant. The proof, generated by an internal large language model trained for general reasoning, surpassed Erdős's long-standing record by constructing a higher-dimensional lattice and mapping it to two dimensions, though it did not prove the approach is optimal.

Experts noted the AI's preternatural patience and focus allowed it to explore paths humans found too tedious, though human input was still needed to refine and validate the output.

## Sources

- [Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-just-solved-an-80-year-old-erdos-problem-and-mathematicians-are-amazed/)

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