---
id: "2026-10-06-erdos-problems-site-freezes-proof-claims"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-06-erdos-problems-site-freezes-proof-claims/"
as_of: "2026-10-08T23:45:00+02:00"
date: "2026-10-06"
date_precision: day
category: research
importance: 3
confidence: high
status: [Confirmed]
sources: 2
editor: Adam Bicz
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-08"
---

As of: 2026-10-08 23:45 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code). Human editor: Adam Bicz.
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-06-erdos-problems-site-freezes-proof-claims/

# erdosproblems.com freezes proof claims and drops 'open/solved' labels and solver credits after a wave of unexplained AI proofs

On Oct 6, 2026 Thomas Bloom, who runs erdosproblems.com (the main public tracker of AI progress on Erdős problems), announced that the site freezes new problem comments and proof claims, removes the open/solved status labels, stops giving credit to solvers (human or AI) and will favour well-written expositions. He cited "a wave of AI-produced solutions provided with no explanation". Terence Tao cross-posted the announcement on his blog.

## Key facts
- Changes: problem comments and proof claims frozen (proofs now go by email for manual review); general discussion stays open
- All problems shown in a neutral colour with no open/solved designation, to remove the 'OPEN->SOLVED dopamine hit'
- No more credit-giving language for results, human or AI; remarks point to sources that discuss the proofs instead
- Priority on good expositions of proofs, 'whether these proofs are old or new, human or AI'
- Bloom: 'There has been a wave of AI-produced solutions provided with no explanation', displacing people interested in the mathematics
- Effect on tracking: the site's solved labels had been the scoreboard used to count AI-solved Erdős problems since 2025

## What happened

Bloom's post, written for the site's forum and cross-posted as a guest post on Tao's "What's new" blog, says the large pool of
easy-to-state Erdős problems "provided the ideal showcase for AI", and that unexplained AI-generated solutions were turning the site into a
proof repository. He quotes the view that for Erdős "mathematics was a very human activity, best done out loud", and says the site will
resist a future in which formal proofs are posted only to be read by other AIs. The changes were announced as already in effect.

## Why it matters

erdosproblems.com was where AI-for-math claims were counted and disputed, from the GPT-5 controversy of October 2025 to the 2026 waves
of GPT-6 Astra and Claude results. Without status labels and credits, counts like "N Erdős problems solved by AI" lose their main public
source. The move came the same day OpenAI released 722 math manuscripts and adds to the math community's pushback (Association for Human
Mathematics).

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 159 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 98 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (training cutoff March 2026): 189 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 128 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Thomas Bloom: Changes to the Erdős problems web site (erdosproblems.com forum)](https://www.erdosproblems.com/forum/thread/blog:9) (erdosproblems.com, official)
2. [Cross-post on Terence Tao's blog (Oct 6, 2026)](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/changes-to-the-erdos-problems-web-site/) (terrytao.wordpress.com, official)

## Changes

- 2026-10-08 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2026-10-06: [OpenAI releases 722 AI-written math manuscripts claiming hundreds of open problems](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-06-openai-math-release-722-manuscripts/index.md)
- 2026-10-05: [Quanta's math editor asks 'Is AI the End of Math As We Know It?'](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-05-quanta-is-ai-the-end-of-math/index.md)
- 2025-10-17: [OpenAI researchers claim GPT-5 'solved' 10 Erdős problems](https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-10-17-gpt-5-erdos-problems-controversy/index.md)
- People: [Terence Tao](https://postcutoff.com/person/terence-tao/), [Thomas Bloom](https://postcutoff.com/person/thomas-bloom/)