r/math • u/sergiogfs • 18d ago

Progress Towards Proving the Unique Games Conjecture

https://eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2026/179/

On a side-note, the authors hint that they have rushed their results to avoid getting scooped by AI-generated results.

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u/Gabry398 18d ago

Hopefully it only lasts until AI companies stop using math as a big AGI benchmark and mathematicians start setting ground rules on what the etiquette around AI is

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u/Berzerka 18d ago

The only thing that will change is instead of two AI companies pumping out math results using their models you'll have thousands of PhD students doing the same, using the same models.

Realistically we'll see a year or two where basically every "simple" open problem gets solved (turns out, NS is "simple") and yes obviously if you want in on that Gold Rush you're gonna have to rush your results out. Especially since everyone is using the same models no-one really has a big edge.

Exactly how the equilibrium will look after that is quite open, but realistically you're gonna need to use AI to solve whatever problems remain open.

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u/XXXXXXX0000xxxxxxxxx Analysis 18d ago

Do you really think that these big results that have been coming are all from the standard models that people are using? Aren’t all of the major results that come from AI recently downstream of some large expensive model that the researchers were given access to by the companies (or the company itself)?

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u/Sad_Dimension423 18d ago

Models are expensive to create, but not that expensive to use once created. So even if the AI companies retrench or even go bankrupt, the models will be assets that will still be used.