2026-10-27 / Signal #3
OpenAI says the Exponential Time Hypothesis is false — humans still have to check
“OpenAI just claimed a 25-year computer-science assumption is false. The original authors now have to grade the robot.”
The Story
OpenAI says an internal model produced three results: a claimed disproof of ETH, a local-smoothing proof that would settle Kakeya in all dimensions, and a physics existence argument including QCD. ETH is a 1990s assumption that 3-SAT can’t be solved much faster than exponential time; the company posted a Lean-checked paper and asked Impagliazzo, Paturi, and Williams to shepherd it. It is a preprint. It does not prove P=NP.
Why It Matters
The machine rewrites a load-bearing conjecture of computer science, then hires the people who invented the conjecture to explain what just happened. Builder future-shock without fake “P=NP solved” hype.
Evidence
OpenAI; The Verge; GitHub preprint; MIT’s Ryan Williams amplifying the PDF. Anthropic posted a separate 3-SAT algorithm the same week. Unverified by independent review.
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-10-27