A mathematician from Nizhny Tagil disproved a hypothesis that…
A mathematician from Nizhny Tagil disproved a hypothesis that scientists had struggled with for nearly three decades thanks to correspondence with ChatGPT. A mathematician from Nizhny Tagill disproved a hypothesis over which scholars have labored for almost 30 years — thanks to meme-style chat with Ch...
Consensus
- Dmitry Rybin, a mathematician from Nizhny Tagil who recently defended his PhD in AI in China and now lives in Shenzhen, used ChatGPT to attempt to disprove the Dinitz–Garg–Goemans hypothesis.
- ChatGPT initially refused but eventually provided a counterexample after several persistent requests.
- The counterexample was verified by Rybin manually during a movie with friends and found to be correct.
- The hypothesis stated that ideal mathematical flow distributions in networks (e.g., transport, logistics, computer) could always be implemented without additional losses.
- For nearly 30 years, no one had been able to prove or disprove this claim.
- Rybin described the event as a 'meme' and credited his main contribution to repeatedly urging ChatGPT not to give up.
- The discovery enables more accurate modeling of network limitations in infrastructure design.
Points of divergence
- Rybin is currently residing in Shenzhen, China, and recently defended his PhD on artificial intelligence there. — vm
- Rybin is a graduate of the Higher School of Economics (Вышка). — tg_mash
Coverage (2 sources)
- Mathematician from Nizhny Tagil disproves 30-year-old hypothesis thanks to ChatGPT — Вечерняя Москва
- Mathematician from Nizhny Tagil disproves a hypothesis scientists struggled with for nearly 30 years thanks to meme-like chat correspondence — Mash