AI solved one of math's hardest problems. Humanity learned nothing (so far)

When OpenAI announced its AI had solved one of the world's toughest math problems earlier this month, its tone was celebratory:

"A major goal of our work is to empower scientists to advance research and technology that benefits all of humanity," the company wrote.

But mathematicians say that, so far, humanity has learned very little from the solution the company's AI model purportedly found. Although they believe the proof to be technically correct, the dense, 166-page manuscript drafted by AI is proving to be a difficult read.

"So far it's been very difficult to really extract any human understanding from this new AI proof," said James Maynard, a mathematician at the University of Oxford.

"The paper is not written for humans," said Javier Gómez-Serrano, a mathematician at Brown University who uses AI in his own research. He said he believes the proof could help advance the field after "some serious re-writing," but "as of today, the paper doesn't teach us much."