OpenAI's 372 Math Breakthroughs Spark Cryptography Alarm as Experts Clash Over Encryption Risk

OpenAI has released solutions to 372 previously unsolved mathematics problems, triggering urgent warnings from leading cryptographers that advanced AI could threaten the encryption securing online payments, messaging apps, and cryptocurrencies. The company published 722 AI-generated manuscripts on October 7, 2026, generated by an unreleased internal model tested on approximately 4,000 mathematical challenges. Each solution required roughly 3 hours of computing time, with the work spanning number theory, algebraic geometry, topology, and analysis—including partial progress on famous unsolved problems like the Riemann hypothesis, the Hodge conjecture, and the Kakeya conjecture.