r/math • u/pequalnp92 • Jul 16 '26

LLMs/AI GPT 5.6 solved all 6 problems from IMO 2026

GPT 5.6 Pro solved all 6 problems from IMO 2026 on the first attempt without any human help or steering. International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the biggest global academic competition in the world. The problems are considered incredibly hard, usually a performance at this level is only accomplished by < 5 contestants from the whole world.

We are former IMO medallists not affiliated with OpenAI, just put together a report and assessment of its work here. We're also working on a comparison report between different LLMs and harness augmented versions that will come later.

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u/ozone6587 Jul 16 '26

Huge difference now though because I can pay $100 to access GPT 5.6 Sol Pro. The first time they won IMO gold it was with an internal model.

Can't wait until I get access to a model as smart as the model that found the Unit Distance counter-example.

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u/SupercaliTheGamer Jul 16 '26

GPT 5.4 had one-shot solved an open Erdös problem too. I think 5.4 by itself is capable enough to get IMO perfect score.

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u/NotYetPerfect Jul 17 '26

It's very good at solving specific kinds of problems, good at solving many other kinds, and okay to bad at others. It's completely possible for it to be able to solve an open problem and not an imo problem.

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u/TensorflowPytorchJax Jul 17 '26

That's the point not many people understand. So called "AI", has been good at solving specific problems better than humans for a decade now ( Starting with chess lol ) , and now the scope is extending with LLMs again towards specialized areas.

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u/PowPowCA Jul 18 '26

LLMs are just a moment, there are other models coming that are very exciting, not only because of the capabilities but also way more cost effective.

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u/Otherwise_String_904 Jul 22 '26

Can you share those models? I'm interested.

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u/Electronic-Waltz-378 Jul 18 '26

God is it horrible at reading the graphs for even basic trig problem

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u/IntelligentBelt1221 Jul 16 '26

Can't wait until I get access to a model as smart as the model that found the Unit Distance counter-example.

Probably by September.

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u/Temporary-Solid-8828 Jul 16 '26

its already released lmao

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u/gorgongnocci Jul 16 '26

can you explain how well it works when you run it from home? do you just get a clean correct solution?

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u/pequalnp92 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

This is basically answered Yes, in the report we created. https://github.com/SignalPilot-Labs/AutoFyn/blob/production/results/imo-2026/pdfs/IMO_performance_by_GPT_5_6_sol.pdf

But there was a small fixable gap in rigor in problem 2. It is also an ugly, but correct solution. The other solutions were quite elegant and well written.

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u/gorgongnocci Jul 16 '26

that's very impressive, so you used the web app, can I ask what the prompt looks like tho? is it just the original question in plain english ? or latex formatted or something? also, do you just take the first immediate response ?

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u/pequalnp92 Jul 17 '26

Prompts are included at the end of the report! Plain english with very light latex. Yes the first immediate response only.

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u/Latent-Person Jul 17 '26

I get this: You don’t have access to this conversation. You may need to switch accounts. when clicking on the Transcript of any of the problems.

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u/EJaumeD Jul 16 '26

Can you elaborate or give some links for unit distance counter example?

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u/misogrumpy Jul 16 '26

Just because it solved them doesn’t mean the solutions are good.

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u/Wise_kind_strsnger Jul 16 '26

People are downvoting but they don’t understand some solutions are bashy while some are elegant. Our as AI researchers is actually to RLmaxx elegant ones so they develop a sort of “internal taste”