OpenAI faced controversy over exaggerated claims while promoting its large language model (LLM), ‘GPT-5’. The company advertised that GPT-5 had solved decades-old mathematical problems, but it turned out the issues had already been resolved.
On the 17th, Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s vice president, posted on X (formerly Twitter), “GPT-5 found solutions to 10 (!) previously unsolved Erdős problems.’” Another researcher tagged in the post added, “Additionally, progress was made on 11 other problems.” Erdős problems refer to conjectures proposed by mathematician Paul Erdős. If true, this would have marked a historic moment where AI solved mathematical challenges unresolved for decades.
However, this was untrue. Thomas Bloom, who runs the ‘Erdős problems website’, had labeled the problems as “open problems,” which OpenAI researchers mistakenly interpreted as “unsolved by humanity.” Bloom stated, “[OpenAI’s claim] is a dramatic misrepresentation,” adding, “The ‘open’ status only means I personally am unaware of a paper which solves it.” The problems were already solved in academia, even if Bloom was not personally aware. Ultimately, GPT-5 did not solve the mathematical challenges but retrieved solutions previously found by mathematicians.
OpenAI researchers later deleted the related posts on X. While a minor incident, criticism emerged within the tech industry. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, a competitor, linked the post on his X and wrote, “This is embarrassing.” Yann LeCun,...
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