The Agent RaceJuly 15, 2026via The Decoder
GPT-5.6 Sol reportedly disproves a 30-year-old statistics conjecture in 90 minutes after humans couldn't crack it
Why it matters
A tangible capability leap between model versions—GPT-5.6 Sol's ability to solve an open conjecture in mathematical statistics demonstrates measurable reasoning improvements and raises the stakes on whether AI can produce genuinely novel knowledge vs. recombination.
Key signals
- GPT-5.6 Sol solved Benjamini-Hochberg method conjecture in ~90 minutes
- GPT-5.5 failed after 20 hours on same problem
- 30-year-old open conjecture in statistics
- Solution combines known methods in novel way
- University of Pennsylvania statistics professor conducted test
- Raises question: AI generation vs. AI recombination of existing knowledge
The hook
GPT-5.6 Sol cracked a 30-year math problem in 90 minutes. GPT-5.5 couldn't in 20 hours. Here's what that tells us about AI capability jumps.
A University of Pennsylvania statistics professor used OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Pro to disprove a central open conjecture about the Benjamini-Hochberg method in roughly 90 minutes. The predecessor model, GPT-5.5, couldn't find a solution even after 20 hours. The answer combines known methods in a new way, keeping the bigger question alive: can AI produce genuinely new knowledge, or does it just recombine what it already learned?