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OpenAI claimed a math breakthrough this weekend, only to be smacked down

The embarrassing episode sprouted from a misunderstood post, amplified by an OpenAI executive as proof of GPT-5’s mathematical prowess, but turned out not to be what it seemed.

Jon Keegan

10/20/25 11:40AM

In an embarrassing episode this weekend, OpenAI was forced to walk back a claim of a major math breakthrough. Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s VP of science, posted on X that “GPT-5 just found solutions to 10 (!) previously unsolved Erdős problems, and made progress on 11 others. These have all been open for decades.”

What do you think “found solutions” means? It sure sounds like they are saying GPT-5 solved these problems!

But shortly after posting this, Thomas Bloom, who runs ErdosProblems.com, disputed the claim. Bloom’s website contains a database of 1,103 of Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős’ challenging problems and references to their solutions that have been found in academic research papers. Bloom called OpenAI’s announcement “a dramatic misrepresentation,” and said that GPT-5 found merely references to solutions for 10 problems that were previously published.

The competition is extremely intense among top AI companies to achieve computing breakthroughs that might indicate the eternally imminent arrival of AGI, so a post like this from such a high-ranking executive caught the industry’s attention.

After being called out for the incorrect claim, Weil acknowledged the error, saying he misunderstood the post in which researcher Mark Sellke detailed the Erdős problems listed as open that GPT-5 had found published solutions for. Weil deleted the original post, but not before other top AI researchers from OpenAI’s rival’s weighed in.

Alphabet’s GoogleMind cofounder and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis wrote, “this is embarrassing.”

Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun, a pioneer in neural networks, dropped the mic with this post:

Hoisted by their own GPTards
— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) October 18, 2025

Chris Stokel-Walker

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Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals

Gold Tesla Cybercabs are piling up, but they’re not picking up passengers yet

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Britain announces social media ban for under-16s starting early 2027

The UK government plans to use the same model for the restrictions as Australia — but how successful has that case study been so far?

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Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5