{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-14-first-proof-challenge/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-14-first-proof-challenge/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":"2026-02-14-first-proof-challenge","date":"2026-02-14","date_precision":"day","short_title":"AI solves about half of 10 unpublished research problems in the 'First Proof' challenge","deck":null,"takeaway":"Eleven mathematicians released 10 unpublished research-level problems on 5 Feb 2026 and answers on 14 Feb. DeepMind's Aletheia got 6/10 by majority expert assessment.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"First Proof challenge","url":"https://1stproof.org/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"1stproof.org"},{"n":2,"title":"OpenAI: First Proof submissions","url":"https://openai.com/index/first-proof-submissions/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"openai.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Scientific American: First Proof is AI's toughest math test yet — the results are mixed","url":"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-proof-is-ais-toughest-math-test-yet-the-results-are-mixed/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"scientificamerican.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-05","orgs":["Google DeepMind","OpenAI"],"title":"'First Proof' challenge: AI solves about half of 10 unpublished research problems set by mathematicians","summary":"Eleven mathematicians released 10 unpublished research-level problems on 5 Feb 2026 and answers on 14 Feb. DeepMind's Aletheia got 6/10 by majority expert assessment. OpenAI got at least 5 likely correct and retracted one claimed solution. Scientific American called the results 'mixed'.","key_facts":["10 problems from the authors' own unpublished research; answers revealed 14 Feb 2026","Aletheia: problems 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 judged correct by majority (experts split on #8)","OpenAI: problems 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 likely correct; retracted claim on #2"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["math","benchmark","research-problems"],"science":{"field":"mathematics","subfield":"research-level problem solving","problem":"Ten previously unpublished lemmas and problems from working mathematicians","result":"Best AI systems solved roughly 5–6 of 10 fresh research problems, with some disputed gradings and one retraction.","open_since":"","ai_system":["Aletheia","OpenAI internal model"],"human_role":"Autonomous attempts; human expert grading","verification":{"key":"none","label":"Unverified claim","text":"Expert grading by the problem setters"},"status":"confirmed","shock":""},"body_md":"## What happened\n\nMathematicians created a contamination-proof test using problems from their own unpublished work, and AI labs submitted solutions within a week.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt gave a cleaner measure than olympiads of whether AI can do research maths: at the time, about half the time.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-06-10-first-proof-second-batch","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-06-10-first-proof-second-batch/","date":"2026-06-10","date_precision":"day","short_title":"AI systems pass 7 of 10 unpublished research problems in First Proof's second batch","deck":null,"takeaway":"It is the most carefully refereed measurement so far of AI on genuine research problems.","category":"benchmark","category_label":"Benchmarks","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":6,"official":4,"filed":"2026-10-05","updated":"2026-10-05","orgs":["First Proof Foundation","ETH Zurich","OpenAI","UCLA","Princeton University"]},{"id":"2026-02-11-deepmind-aletheia-deep-think-science","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-11-deepmind-aletheia-deep-think-science/","date":"2026-02-11","date_precision":"day","short_title":"DeepMind's Aletheia agent and Gemini Deep Think report autonomous Erdős solutions and new physics and CS results","deck":null,"takeaway":"Google's answer to OpenAI's maths push showed that several labs could now produce publishable research-level results, although many were on problems nobody had seriously attacked.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"pending","labels":["Event confirmed","Awaiting review"]},"sources":3,"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-19","orgs":["Google DeepMind"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-05","type":"edit","text":"Linked the second-batch benchmark entry (June 2026)"},{"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":"2026-10-05","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-07"}},"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}