Recently, the Free University of Brussels (VUB) released a research breakthrough that could be etched into AI history: commercial large models now have the capability to independently generate original mathematical proofs. The experiment showed that ChatGPT-5.2 (Thinking), developed by OpenAI, successfully solved a long-standing mathematical conjecture proposed by mathematicians Ran and Teng in 2024.
Image source note: The image is AI-generated, provided by the AI generation service Midjourney
This breakthrough marks the formal expansion of the boundaries of large language models (LLMs), moving beyond code assistance and text creation into the highly logically rigorous field of theoretical mathematics. The mathematical community has reacted strongly, believing that this signals a fundamental transformation in the paradigm of scientific discovery.
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The research team named this new research model "vibe-proving," drawing inspiration from the recent trend of "vibe programming." Throughout the entire proof process, ChatGPT independently explored the proof path and built the core logical framework, demonstrating original reasoning capabilities beyond mere data combination.
The entire proof involved 7 rounds of dialogue interaction and 4 versions of self-iteration, ultimately forming a rigorous logical argument. Although human researchers still performed the final verification, the AI's deduction efficiency far exceeded the expectations of human mathematicians.
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Professor Vincent Ginis from VUB pointed out that this achievement breaks the long-held prejudice that "AI only has inductive abilities but no creativity." As the barrier for AI to generate mathematical proofs lowers, the speed of theoretical mathematics research is expected to see an exponential increase.
