The Ledger

Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.

clear all ✕

why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable

Opinion
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…”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 1:00:42 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Prediction Not checkable as stated
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.”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 1:02:50 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Assertion Supported
Selke: OpenAI models discovered better bounds for spherical and binary codes
“Our models found better bounds for these cases as well.”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 33:52 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Disclosure
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.”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 35:17 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Insight
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…”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 5:20 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Insight
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…”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 9:10 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Assertion Supported
Selke: OpenAI's Astra proved that a non-sofic group exists
“So, so the result that Astra proved is simply that there exists a non-sulfic group.”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 47:03 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Selke: Only humans can generate 200-page mathematical proofs right now
“Like, only humans can generate, like, 200 page proofs right now.”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 56:38 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Selke: Non-mathematicians will be able to use advanced math without experts
“The ability of someone who's not working on math is, like, their literal job all the time to, like, understand what's going on and, like, you know, learn about some of the mysteries they might have wondered about will go up quite a lot. Also, you know, if you'…”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 1:04:02 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Selke: OpenAI's Astra improved bounds further simply when prompted again
“In, in this case, what the model was asked to do originally for codes was to improve the bounds by, like, some exponential factor, so it really, like, shows up in this, like, leading constant up here. And, you know, it improved the bounds, and it didn't try to…”
Mark Selke Sep 8, 2026 ▶ 36:57 Inside OpenAI’s Breakthroughs in Mathematical Reasoning
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