{
  "id": 11228771,
  "title": "'This is what happened with Claude and me': AI's failed attempt to crack the Riemann hypothesis led mathematician to a breakthrough",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/this-is-what-happened-with-claude-and-me-ais-failed-attempt-to-crack",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-01T15:56:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Live Science",
    "slug": "live-science",
    "url": "https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/this-is-what-happened-with-claude-and-me-ais-failed-attempt-to-crack-the-riemann-hypothesis-led-mathematician-to-a-breakthrough"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Claude, Anthropic's AI model, attempted to prove the Riemann hypothesis in late July. The Riemann hypothesis, proposed by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1859, suggests that all non-trivial zeroes of the Riemann zeta function lie on a single vertical line when plotted out, which would confirm rules and limit the apparent randomness of prime number distribution. This profound finding would have significant implications throughout mathematics and cryptography. After numerous attempts, Claude achieved 67.25% of the minimum proportion of zeroes on the critical line, a significant leap from the previously known 40%. However, this result did not advance the solution to the Riemann hypothesis, as it still demands absolute certainty for all zeroes. Intrigued by Claude's progress, Youness Lamzouri, an expert in the field at the University of Lorraine in France, decided to explore the AI's proof further. After reviewing the papers Claude had drawn from, Lamzouri devised a different approach that bypassed some of the complicated mathematics involved. His method confirmed the same 67.25% proportion of zeroes on the line in a more straightforward way and also proved that the percentage of zeroes that are neither simple nor on the line is at most 11%. This breakthrough, while not a solution to the Riemann hypothesis, demonstrates new ideas directly interacting with the problem, exciting mathematicians like James Maynard, a professor at the University of Oxford and co-winner of the 2022 Fields Medal.",
  "summary": "An attempt by Anthropic's Claude failed to prove the Riemann hypothesis, but it did produce something genuinely useful: inspiration.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}