The trick: Self-Marked
OpenAI says its AI proved a pillar of complexity theory false, checked by machine on 17 October.
The claim is the full hypothesis. The checking so far is OpenAI's own.
OpenAI says its system proved the Exponential Time Hypothesis false, verified in Lean.
Before you read on. Your call?
TRUE, BUT
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The paper does claim the full hypothesis, via a counting algorithm for k-CNF. The Lean check is OpenAI's own and covers a weaker bound than the paper's sharpest one.
The twist
The three experts leading the review, two of whom proposed ETH, say their involvement is not certification.
There’s more to this story.
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The trick has a name
We call it Self-Marked: graded by the party that benefits from the grade. You'll see it again. Learn to spot it →
Receipts
- Supports web.archive.org:
Surprisingly, our system has recently proved that the ETH is false, a result that was subsequently verified in Lean.
- Supports raw.githubusercontent.com:
We give a deterministic algorithm for exactly counting the satisfying assignments
- Supports raw.githubusercontent.com:
Our algorithm refutes the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), which
- Context web.archive.org:
Our AI found its natural language disproof for the ETH on October 16th, 2026
- Supports raw.githubusercontent.com:
Lean proves that a deterministic machine exactly counts satisfying assignments of a canonically encoded
- Context raw.githubusercontent.com:
For $m$ clauses, the October 25 manuscript gives the sharper time bound
- Context web.archive.org:
This work will be verified and shepherded by a group led by Russell Impagliazzo
- Context thenextweb.com:
A group led by Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi of UC San Diego and Ryan Williams of MIT will check and explain the result.
- Context thenextweb.com:
has produced a claimed refutation of ETH
- Refutes thenextweb.com:
Our involvement should not be taken as certification of the claim.
- Context thenextweb.com:
A result of this significance requires careful, independent scrutiny
- Context thenextweb.com:
Williams said on X that the group signed no non-disclosure agreements and will not be paid.
- Context web.archive.org:
Finding such algorithms, and turning theoretical advances into practical improvements, will require significant further research.
Open the Receipts Pack → What each source proves, every figure traced, and what would change our verdict.
