Chinese doctor stuns maths world by cracking decades-old problem using ChatGPT
When Beijing-based neurosurgeon Jin Shanmu pulled up a chair at his computer, he was not looking to make mathematical history. He was simply trying to crack a problem related to brain ultrasounds. Instead, the self-taught maths enthusiast, with help from OpenAI’s latest flagship artificial intelligence (AI) model, solved a two-decade-old mathematical puzzle that had frustrated experts around the…
Beijing-based neurosurgeon Jin Shanmu has stunned the mathematical world by solving a two-decade-old puzzle known as Crouzeix’s conjecture, using OpenAI’s latest AI model, ChatGPT. The conjecture, proposed by French mathematician Michel Crouzeix, posits that the norm of applying any function to a matrix is no larger than twice the function’s maximum value on that matrix’s numerical range.
Jin, a self-taught maths enthusiast with a background in geology and medicine, used a 16-hour autonomous run on GPT-5.6-Sol to prove the conjecture. Cornell University mathematician Alex Townsend and University of Washington professor Anne Greenbaum confirmed the proof as correct, although it has yet to undergo formal peer review.
This breakthrough highlights the growing influence of frontier AI systems in driving mathematical discoveries.
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