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OpenAI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problem
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OpenAI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problem

The Guardian · May 21, 2026, 4:24 PM

Key takeaways

  • If you take a sheet of paper and add some dots, how many pairs can be the same distance apart?
  • Prefer the Guardian on Google Open AI has claimed a further advance in AI reasoning after its technology successfully tackled an 80-year-old maths problem.
  • The company behind ChatGPT said it had made a breakthrough with a challenge first posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem.

Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.

If you take a sheet of paper and add some dots, how many pairs can be the same distance apart? Illustration: Open AIView image in fullscreen If you take a sheet of paper and add some dots, how many pairs can be the same distance apart? Illustration: Open AIOpen AIOpen AI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problem Company says work on Paul Erdős planar unit distance problem shows advance in AI reasoning

Prefer the Guardian on Google Open AI has claimed a further advance in AI reasoning after its technology successfully tackled an 80-year-old maths problem.

The company behind ChatGPT said it had made a breakthrough with a challenge first posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem.

Article preview — originally published by The Guardian. Full story at the source.
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