OpenAI’s ‘Embarrassing’ Math Claim Sparks Industry Backlash
OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math moment has taken the AI world by storm. What started as a celebration of GPT-5’s supposed ability to solve long-standing math problems quickly turned into a public correction from experts — and a lesson in scientific humility.
Image Credits:Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images
Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun didn’t mince words. Describing the situation as “Hoisted by their own GPTards,” LeCun mocked the wave of backlash after OpenAI researchers proudly announced that GPT-5 had achieved major mathematical breakthroughs.
Even Google DeepMind’s CEO Demis Hassabis weighed in, calling the situation “embarrassing.”
What Triggered The ‘Embarrassing’ Math Controversy
According to The Decoder, the uproar began when OpenAI VP Kevin Weil posted — and later deleted — a tweet claiming that “GPT-5 found solutions to 10 (!) previously unsolved Erdős problems and made progress on 11 others.”
For context, Erdős problems are famous mathematical conjectures proposed by the legendary mathematician Paul Erdős. Solving even one of these is considered a major achievement in mathematics.
Weil’s post went viral almost instantly, with many in the AI community praising GPT-5’s potential to revolutionize research — until mathematicians stepped in.
Mathematicians Call Out Misrepresentation
Thomas Bloom, who maintains the Erdős Problems website, quickly refuted the claim. He clarified that while the problems were listed as “open” on his site, that label only means he personally wasn’t aware of any published solution — not that the problems remained unsolved globally.
Bloom stated bluntly that GPT-5 did not solve previously unsolved mathematical problems. Instead, it merely surfaced existing references to solutions that had already been published elsewhere — information Bloom hadn’t encountered yet.
As Bloom put it, “GPT-5 found references, which solved these problems, that I personally was unaware of.”
OpenAI Researchers Backtrack
Following Bloom’s clarification, OpenAI researcher Sébastien Bubeck also stepped in to correct the record. While GPT-5’s retrieval capabilities may have improved, he admitted that the model’s supposed breakthroughs were the result of misunderstanding — not new discoveries.
The company has since deleted the original tweet and refrained from further comment on the incident, which continues to circulate widely on social media as “OpenAI’s embarrassing math moment.”
Why ‘OpenAI’s Embarrassing Math’ Matters
The episode highlights the growing tension between hype and verification in AI research. As companies race to showcase their models’ superhuman abilities, mistakes like this can damage credibility — not just for OpenAI, but for the entire AI industry.
Critics like LeCun argue that this is exactly why independent verification and transparency are vital in AI research. Without peer review or reproducible evidence, claims of “breakthroughs” risk turning into public relations disasters rather than genuine scientific progress.
Despite the backlash, the incident offers a valuable lesson: AI models like GPT-5 are incredibly capable at retrieving information, but they’re not infallible researchers. OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math mistake underscores the importance of human oversight, collaboration with domain experts, and maintaining scientific rigor — especially when AI systems start venturing into highly specialized fields like mathematics.
Post a Comment