AI Solved A Mathematical Problem That Had Stumped The World’s Best Minds For Decades

Researchers say GPT-5.4 proved Erdős Problem #1196, an asymptotic form of the Primitive Set Conjecture, after it resisted human mathematicians for decades.

The AI found an unconventional arithmetic proof using the von Mangoldt function instead of the usual analytic approach.

Leading expert Jared Duker Lichtman called the result elegant, highlighting the novelty of the method.

The breakthrough suggests AI may help generate genuinely new proof strategies for hard open problems in mathematics.