OpenAI Says Upcoming Astra Model Cracked Ten Long-Standing Math Problems

OpenAI has revealed that an internal version of its next flagship model, Astra, has produced solutions to ten mathematics and computer science problems that had gone unsolved for at least ten years. Alongside the announcement, the company released a 249-page paper and machine-verifiable proof files on GitHub.

Group Theory Puzzle Takes Center Stage

The standout achievement is the first working construction of a non-sofic group, settling a group theory mystery that had lingered since 1999. Astra also disproved a long-held conjecture on von Neumann algebras and resolved three problems from mathematician Paul Erdos’s well-known list.

Low Compute Cost Raises Eyebrows

OpenAI says the entire set of solutions cost around $2,000 in compute. The announcement comes as mathematicians push back against AI firms publishing results outside peer review, following similar criticism after OpenAI’s earlier claim of disproving the Erdos unit distance conjecture.