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Noam Brown @polynoamial

reposted by Dominic Cummings — saved image

Dominic Cummings reposted
Noam Brown @polynoamial · 13h
The cost of generating the proofs for all 10 of these breakthroughs combined was under $2,000 at Sol API prices. We're excited to see what scientists and researchers are able to create with our upcoming Astra models!

[Quoted tweet:]
Noam Brown @polynoamial · 13h
An internal version of Astra, @OpenAI's next major model family, solved 10 major open problems in mathematics, quantum complexity, and theoretical computer science.
...

[Embedded list, printed/book-style formatting:]
1. High-dimensional sphere packing. The asymptotic strength of the Cohn–Elkies linear program is determined exactly. This gives an improved general packing bound in high dimensions and settles the corresponding Fourier sign-uncertainty problem asymptotically.
2. Binary and spherical codes. Classical upper bounds for fixed-distance binary and spherical codes are improved by exponential factors for all parameters. The spherical construction also recovers the sphere-packing exponent of Chapter 1.
3. Non-sofic groups. An explicit non-sofic group is constructed, resolving the question of whether every countable group admits finite permutation approximations. The argument uses property-(T) expanders and the binary Leavitt algebra.
4. Connes's rigidity conjecture. Infinitely many pairwise nonisomorphic property-(T) groups are constructed with the same group von Neumann algebra, disproving Connes's conjecture and answering a related finite-to-one question.
5. Arithmetic circuit complexity. For the permanent, division-free circuits require Ω(n² log log n) gates, while formulas require Ω(n⁴/log n) leaves.
6. Quantum parallel repetition. Exponential parallel repetition is proved for every finite two-player entangled game, extending the classical repetition principle beyond previously treated special classes of quantum games.
7. Closest vector problem. A direct reduction from 3SAT gives n^{1/400}-factor hardness for Euclidean closest vector, with related consequences for binary decoding and other lattice norms.
8. Ehrhart's volume conjecture. The sharp bound (n+1)^n/n! is proved in every dimension for convex bodies whose barycenter is their only interior lattice point.
9. Multicolor Ramsey numbers. A superexponential lower bound proves R_k(3) = k^Θ(k).
10. Compactness and degeneracy. Separate bipartite graph constructions disprove two conjectures in extremal graph theory: the compactness conjecture of Erdős and Simonovits and a degeneracy conjecture of Erdős.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Noam Brown (OpenAI) tweets that an internal version of 'Astra,' OpenAI's next major model family, solved 10 major open problems in mathematics, quantum complexity, and theoretical computer science, listing them (sphere packing, binary/spherical codes, non-sofic groups, Connes's rigidity conjecture, arithmetic circuit complexity, quantum parallel repetition, closest vector problem, Ehrhart's volume conjecture, multicolor Ramsey numbers, compactness/degeneracy conjectures), stating total proof-generation cost was under $2,000. This is the original source of the list discussed skeptically in the earlier 1a3orn/Fable screenshot (seq 40).

openaiastramathai capabilitiesnoam browntwitter

Noam Brown @polynoamial

Noam Brown @polynoamial · 11h When GPT-5 was released, some folks claimed AI progress was hitting a wall, whereas others said progress would continue. GPT-5.2 was released 2 months ago. GPT-5.3-Codex was released 2 days ago and is twice as token efficient for coding. It's clear who turned out to be correct. [Chart: METR "Time-horizon of software engineering tasks different LLMs can complete 50% of the time" — y-axis task duration in hours humans need, x-axis LLM release date 2020-2025. Points trace exponential growth from GPT-2/GPT-3 near 0 through GPT-3.5, GPT-4, o3, GPT-5, Claude Opus 4.5, up to GPT-5.2 (high) at ~7 hours by 2025/2026.] 💬 76 🔁 122 ♥ 1.2K 📊 106K Taelin @VictorTaelin · 6h do you expect this trend to keep going? at this pace we'd reach unthinkably absurd values at the end of this year? 💬 8 🔁 1 ♥ 147 📊 7.2K Noam Brown @polynoamial · 6h Yes. I think by the end of the year the main challenge for @METR_Evals will be measuring horizons that long.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Twitter exchange citing METR's task-horizon benchmark to argue AI capability progress is accelerating rather than plateauing, with Noam Brown predicting horizons will soon exceed what METR can measure. Directly relevant to the empirical singularity tracking / METR automation-level notes in the project's model-individuation research.

ai capabilitiesmetrtask horizonsagi timelinesscalingnoam brown

Jimmy Apples @apples_jimmy

quote-tweeting @polynoamial (Noam Brown)

Jimmy Apples 🍎…✓ @apples_jimmy sprawled on the floor, memes leaking from my thumbs, AGI humming in my veins like a misplaced god. The feed murmurs "tide's rising everywhere" & I let it pool in my cupped palms. I doze off to the sound of my own obsolescence lapping closer. Jimmy's in his opium den phase > QUOTED: Noam Brown ✓ @polynoamial · Mar 12 > Seeing these creative writing outputs has been a real "feel the AGI" moment for some folks at @OpenAI. The pessimist line lately has been "only stuff like code and math will keep getting better; the fuzzy, subjective bits will stall."... [Show more] 3:56 AM · Mar 12, 2025 · 27.5K Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A surreal, semi-ironic poetic tweet from AI-hype figure Jimmy Apples riffing on feeling personally obsolete in the face of AGI creative-writing progress, quote-tweeting OpenAI researcher Noam Brown's comment that improved AI creative writing output is a "feel the AGI" moment countering the belief that only code/math would keep improving. Relevant to Nathan's tracking of AI capability perception and "feel the AGI" sentiment among researchers.

twitteragiopenaicreative writingai capabilitiesnoam brownfeel the agi

Andrej Karpathy @karpathy

quoting Garry Tan (@garrytan); reply from Noam Brown (@polynoamial)

Andrej Karpat... @karpat... · Feb 24 Agency > Intelligence I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are [Show more] > QUOTED: Garry Tan @garrytan · Feb 24 > Intelligence is on tap now so agency is even more important x.com/hvpandya/statu... [734 replies, 3.7K reposts, 19K likes, 1.5M views] Noam Brown @polynoamial · 2h Do you really think AI models won't have agency soon too? [29 replies, 9 reposts, 180 likes, 14K views]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Andrej Karpathy argues agency matters more than intelligence and is scarcer/more valuable, quote-tweeted approvingly by Garry Tan; Noam Brown replies pointedly asking whether AI models will soon have agency too — relevant to Nathan's tracking of AI-capability discourse and the agency/intelligence distinction in agentic-AI risk framing.

twitterai capabilitiesagencyintelligencekarpathynoam brownagentic ai

Noam Brown @polynoamial

Noam Brown ✓ @polynoamial There's a lot of talk of LLMs "saturating all the evals" but there's plenty of evals people could make where LLMs would do poorly: -Beat a Zelda game -Make a profit in a prediction market -Write a stand-up set that's original and funny I'm bullish on AI, but we're far from done. 9:55 AM · Feb 6, 2025 · 2,440 Views 12 replies, 9 reposts, 128 likes, 12 bookmarks Noam Brown ✓ @polynoamial · 4m A lot of grad students have asked me how they can best contribute to the field of AI when they are short on GPUs and making better evals is one thing I consistently point to. [reply, 28 likes] Sir Mr Meow ... ✓ @SirMrMeow... · 3m [reply thread continues, cut off]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Noam Brown (OpenAI researcher) argues LLM eval saturation claims are overstated, listing tasks LLMs still fail at; follow-up tweet on grad students contributing via better evals. Relevant to Nathan's interest in AI capability evaluation and benchmarking.

ai evaluationbenchmarksllm capabilitiesnoam brownai progress