OpenAI model reportedly proves Barnette's Conjecture, evoking mixed emotions
A Hacker News comment by Jake Boggan, quoted by Simon Willison, reports that OpenAI's model has supposedly proven Barnette's Conjecture, a long-standing graph theory problem. Boggan, who spent 24 years working on the conjecture, expresses mixed emotions about the news, noting the proof is listed as problem 180. The comment highlights the emotional impact of AI achievements on human researchers.
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Simon Willison
I was a graph theory junkie long ago and even moved to Budapest for awhile to study among the greats. While I was there I started working on Barnette's Conjecture which came to occupy my thoughts over the next 24 years of my life, on and off as I worked in many different fields. Last summer I even thought for a few days that I had actually solved it. But it's supposedly proven here - problem 180 . I don't know what to think exactly. I spent thousands of hours on that problem. I really enjoyed it. Hearing that it is solved somehow makes me sad in a far-off way, like hearing an ex-girlfriend died suddenly in a car crash. I don't know, there's probably a lot of people feeling odd emotions tonight. — Jake Boggan , Hacker News comment on openai/math Tags: openai , mathematics , deep-blue , llms , ai , generative-ai