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EIGHTEEN YEARS. THREE DAYS.

By Zimbo · November 6, 2026

AI cartoon by Zimbo: Satirical cartoon: a beaming robot presents a Lean-stamped proof with a DAY 3 timecard to a dishevelled mathematician slumped over eighteen years of crossed-out proofs, under a wall calendar saying 2008, on plain white paper.
An unreleased Anthropic model proved an 18-year-old quantum conjecture in three days — Lean-checked, twice improved, and still not peer reviewed.Zimbo for AI News Page

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Physical Superintelligence announced on November 6 that its internal research system, running instances of a non-public Anthropic model, found a proof of the Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture — open since 2008 and counted among quantum computing's central open problems.

The system had a complete proof by the third day of the run, Lean machine-checked every step, and PSI improved the result twice with Lean's sign-off. The manuscript plus the full Lean formalization are public.

The proof has not been peer reviewed, and a human still has to confirm the formal statement in Lean matches the conjecture as Aaronson and Ambainis meant it — the machine proved it, but a person still has to check it proved the right thing.

The joke is the waiting-room beat: a beaming robot presents a LEAN-stamped proof with a DAY 3 timecard to a dishevelled mathematician slumped over eighteen years of crossed-out proofs, under a wall calendar that still says 2008.

READ THE FULL REPORT — Physical Superintelligence ↗

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