{"slug": "claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof", "title": "Claude Mythos solves OpenAI's landmark Erdős problem with simple proof", "summary": "Anthropic's Claude Mythos has solved OpenAI's landmark Erdős unit-distance conjecture with what an engineer called a \"cute, simple proof,\" marking another AI-driven breakthrough in combinatorial geometry. The system, using isolated Claude Code instances that independently develop and distribute solution paths, reportedly also replicated OpenAI's original solution to the problem that had stood open since 1946. The achievement signals growing competition among AI labs in automated mathematical discovery, though some mathematicians rated Mythos's result slightly below OpenAI's.", "body_md": "# Claude Mythos reportedly solves OpenAI's landmark Erdős problem with a \"cute, simple proof\"\n\n**Anthropic employees say Claude Mythos can also solve OpenAI's \"AI math milestone.\"** OpenAI recently [disproved the Erdős unit-distance conjecture](https://the-decoder.com/openai-shifts-the-boundary-of-automated-reasoning-with-a-milestone-in-ai-mathematics-that-experts-are-now-unpacking/), an open problem in combinatorial geometry since 1946. Anthropic engineer Sholto Douglas [wrote on X](https://x.com/_sholtodouglas/status/2059303540150137244) that Mythos solves it with a \"cute, simple proof,\" a sign of \"serious overhang\" in AI-driven math discoveries.\n\nThe [team used a test system](https://x.com/__alpoge__/status/2059298567366513110) built after [AI solved Erdős problem #1196](https://the-decoder.com/openais-gpt-5-4-pro-reportedly-solves-a-longstanding-open-erdos-math-problem-in-under-two-hours/): isolated Claude Code instances with Mythos access receive the problem, develop solution paths, and then one instance summarizes and distributes them to further instances working independently. Mythos frequently took a different route than OpenAI's model. [Mathematician Daniel Litt called](https://x.com/littmath/status/2059309078812180877) the result \"a bit worse\" than OpenAI's, but Mythos reportedly found OpenAI's solution too. Anthropic published a [proof version prepared by Opus 4.7](https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/files/4zrzovbb/website/ca35f196125c899a5ad11f011080202a652aef02.pdf).\n\nGoogle DeepMind also recently announced that an AI-assisted system [solved nine Erdős problems](https://the-decoder.com/google-deepminds-alphaproof-nexus-solves-decades-old-math-problems-for-a-few-hundred-dollars/), though its approach relies on the formal proof language Lean, which is less impressive from an LLM purist's perspective. Then again, [Claude Code is an agentic harness, not a pure LLM either](https://the-decoder.com/frontier-radar-2-why-ai-productivity-gets-lost-between-benchmarks-and-the-balance-sheet/).\n\n```\nAI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive \"AI Radar\" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now\n```\n\n[Douglas via X](https://x.com/_sholtodouglas/status/2059303540150137244)|\n\n[Levent via X](https://x.com/__alpoge__/status/2059298565093196012)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof", "canonical_source": "https://the-decoder.com/claude-mythos-reportedly-solves-openais-landmark-erdos-problem-with-a-cute-simple-proof/", "published_at": "2026-05-30 13:51:56+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-30 14:07:50.782616+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-research", "large-language-models", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["Anthropic", "OpenAI", "Claude Mythos", "Sholto Douglas", "Daniel Litt", "Opus 4.7"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/claude-mythos-solves-openai-s-landmark-erdos-problem-with-simple-proof.jsonld"}}