Science
High school students use AI tools to solve open math problem
Hacker News reports that two high school students collaborated with a UCLA researcher and AI models to solve a math problem.
The short version
- High school students Aayush Bathija and Prince Rohatgi collaborated with UCLA postdoctoral fellow Daniel Soskin and advanced AI models to solve an open mathematics problem.[Hacker News]
- The 75-page research paper on Lorentzian polynomials was uploaded to the preprint repository arXiv.[Hacker News]
- The achievement coincided with an open letter signed by 25 Fields Medalists warning about the potential harms of AI in mathematical research.[Hacker News]
Key facts
- Aayush Bathija and Prince Rohatgi, high school students at Oak Park High School, worked with UCLA postdoctoral researcher Daniel Soskin to address an open problem regarding Lorentzian polynomials.[Hacker News]
- The research team utilized AI tools Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol for computation, idea generation, and editing support.[Hacker News]
- The resulting 75-page paper, titled 'Bounded Ratios for Lorentzian Polynomials', was released on arXiv.[Hacker News]
- Twenty-five Fields Medalists, including June Huh, released an open letter warning against the impact of AI on mathematics.[Hacker News]
What remains uncertain
- The arXiv paper represents pre-peer-review research and awaits formal peer verification by the broader mathematical community.[Hacker News]
Sources
Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.