Selke: Only humans can generate 200-page mathematical proofs right now
Mark Selke · Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning · Sep 8, 2026 · at 56:38
OpenAI researcher Mark Selke notes that contrary to expectations of bloated machine proofs, AI proofs have remained short and elegant compared to human ones.
0:00 / 0:03exact quote · 3.7s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Like, only humans can generate, like, 200 page proofs right now.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Mark Selke
Selke: Proving mathematical results is becoming much less of a bottleneck
“Proving the result was, like, so hard that kind of the other stuff was just kind of coming along for the ride, right? You know, like, if you manage to, like, prove this thing yourself, you're automatically gonna understand it quite well. You're kind of respons…”
Selke: AI might plausibly never solve problems like P versus NP
“Even if AI get, you know, continues getting, like, exponentially better at math, like, it might, you know, plausible will never solve something like P versus NP.”
Selke: OpenAI models discovered better bounds for spherical and binary codes
“Our models found better bounds for these cases as well.”
Selke: Coding theory was Astra's only proof requiring human interaction
“This was the one case where there was some interactivity involved. So for all of, so except for this pair, it was just, you know, we had some problems, we fed them in, and we you know, the model came back with some solutions.”
Selke: AI models consistently nail detailed mathematical execution where humans get lost
“Another relative strength that's pretty noticeable is just, like, it's very good at executing on some, like, idea once it has it. Like, you know, whenever you have an idea, there's, like, There's usually some amount of, you know, getting everything lined up, l…”
Selke: AI avoids human cognitive bias by easily resetting polluted context
“Like, as a human, if you have some, like, wrong path you go down for a while, it can be hard to, like, rewire your brain to, like, start over and, like, try a different path. Like, you're kind of, the initial idea is kind of linked in your brain with these oth…”