OpenAI, Anthropic claim ETH refutation — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- OpenAI released solutions to three long-standing math problems, including a claimed refutation of the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), a core assumption in computational complexity theory.
- Anthropic independently released its own refutation of ETH hours after OpenAI, with mathematician Levent Alpöge suggesting OpenAI’s work built on pre-existing research.
- Ryan Williams, an MIT computer scientist, is leading a working group of computer scientists to evaluate OpenAI’s proof and has called for community feedback via an open letter.
- OpenAI engaged UC San Diego researchers Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi, who originally formulated ETH in 1999, to help interpret the new findings.
- Ryan Williams described parts of OpenAI’s proof as 'alien-looking' and emphasized that the result demands collaborative investigation across the scientific community.
- OpenAI confirmed to Williams that its algorithm does not currently break any known cryptographic systems, addressing immediate cybersecurity concerns.
Why it matters: If the refutation of ETH holds, decades of computer science research based on the assumption that certain problems are exponentially hard will need reevaluation, and cryptographic standards could face future pressure—though OpenAI says current systems remain secure for now.
Ask SkimNews
