{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-11-05-alphaevolve-tao-67-problems/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-11-05-alphaevolve-tao-67-problems/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2025-11-05-alphaevolve-tao-67-problems","date":"2025-11-05","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Tao, Gómez-Serrano, Georgiev and Wagner test AlphaEvolve on 67 maths problems","deck":null,"takeaway":"In 'Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale' (arXiv 2511.02864), Bogdan Georgiev, Javier Gómez-Serrano, Terence Tao and Adam Zsolt Wagner ran AlphaEvolve on 67 problems in analysis, combinatorics, geometry and number theory.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale (arXiv 2511.02864)","url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02864","type":"paper","group":"primary","domain":"arxiv.org"},{"n":2,"title":"GitHub: alphaevolve_repository_of_problems","url":"https://github.com/google-deepmind/alphaevolve_repository_of_problems","type":"code","group":"primary","domain":"github.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Terence Tao: Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale","url":"https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/mathematical-exploration-and-discovery-at-scale/","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"terrytao.wordpress.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-19","orgs":["Google DeepMind","UCLA","Brown University"],"title":"Tao, Gómez-Serrano, Georgiev and Wagner test AlphaEvolve on 67 maths problems","summary":"In 'Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale' (arXiv 2511.02864), Bogdan Georgiev, Javier Gómez-Serrano, Terence Tao and Adam Zsolt Wagner ran AlphaEvolve on 67 problems in analysis, combinatorics, geometry and number theory. It rediscovered the best known constructions in most cases and improved several. Some runs were chained with Deep Think and AlphaProof to produce proofs.","key_facts":["67 problems; a public repository with per-problem notebooks","Rediscovered state-of-the-art constructions in most cases and improved on several","Pipeline: AlphaEvolve (constructions) → Deep Think (informal proof) → AlphaProof (formal proof) in some cases","Tao blog post, 5 Nov 2025"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["math","alphaevolve","analysis","combinatorics","geometry"],"science":{"field":"mathematics","subfield":"analysis / combinatorics / geometry","problem":"Broad battery of optimisation-type open problems (e.g. inequalities, packings, finite-field Kakeya-type constructions)","result":"Systematic evidence that LLM-driven evolutionary search matches or beats best-known constructions across dozens of problems.","open_since":"","ai_system":["AlphaEvolve","Gemini Deep Think","AlphaProof"],"human_role":"Human-led with AI tools: mathematicians chose problems and scorers","verification":{"key":"preprint","label":"Preprint only","text":"Explicit constructions checkable by computation (problem repository public); unrefereed arXiv preprint (2511.02864)"},"status":"confirmed","shock":""},"body_md":"## What happened\n\nLeading mathematicians stress-tested AlphaEvolve on a large, varied problem set and published both the successes and the failures.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nComing from Tao, it gave the maths community a credible, balanced picture of what AI search could do, just before the 2026 surge.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2025-05-14-alphaevolve","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-05-14-alphaevolve/","date":"2025-05-14","date_precision":"day","short_title":"AlphaEvolve: Gemini-powered agent discovers new algorithms","deck":null,"takeaway":"A concrete example of LLM-based systems making novel discoveries and improving the infrastructure that trains them — an early form of recursive improvement.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":4,"official":4,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind"]},{"id":"2021-04-29-wagner-rl-counterexamples","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2021-04-29-wagner-rl-counterexamples/","date":"2021-04-29","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Adam Zsolt Wagner uses reinforcement learning to find counterexamples to open graph-theory conjectures","deck":null,"takeaway":"It was the template for the 2023–2026 wave of AI counterexample finding (FunSearch, AlphaEvolve, PatternBoost, LLM counterexamples).","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":2,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":2,"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Adam Zsolt Wagner"]}],"people":[{"id":"terence-tao","name":"Terence Tao","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/terence-tao/"}],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-19","type":"edit","text":"Verification made precise"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-19","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-19"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":null}