Can AI generate new ideas?

For decades, elite mathematicians have struggled to solve a collection of thorny problems posed by a 20th-century academic named Paul Erdos.

This month, an artificial intelligence startup called Harmonic jumped into the mix. Harmonic said its AI technology, Aristotle, had solved an “Erdos problem” with help from a collaborator: OpenAI’s latest technology, GPT-5.2 Pro.