OpenAI models disprove Exponential Time Hypothesis, three discoveries announced

A machine-generated result that overturns a foundational hardness assumption — and is then handed to the very researchers who built that assumption — marks a shift in how mathematical claims get credentialed, not just in who produces them. The Lean formalization matters as much as the proof: it moves verification from social trust toward machine-checkable evidence, which could reshape peer review in complexity theory. The open question is whether the ETH's role in hundreds of papers survives scrutiny, since a disproof would ripple through results that relied on it as a given.