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Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by sequin on Sunday January 18, 2026 @12:05AM (#46664929)
FWIW, I just gave Deepseek the same prompt and it solved it too (much faster than the 41m of ChatGPT). I then gave both proofs to Opus and it confirmed their equivalence.

The answer is yes. Assume, for the sake of contradiction, that there exists an \(\epsilon > 0\) such that for every \(k\), there exists a choice of congruence classes \(a_1^{(k)}, \dots, a_k^{(k)}\) for which the set of integers not covered by the first \(k\) congruences has density at least \(\epsilon\).

For each \(k\), let \(F_k\) be the set of all infinite sequences of residues \((a_i)_{i=1}^\infty\) such that the uncovered set from the first \(k\) congruences has density at least \(\epsilon\). Each \(F_k\) is nonempty (by assumption) and closed in the product topology (since it depends only on the first \(k\) coordinates). Moreover, \(F_{k+1} \subseteq F_k\) because adding a congruence can only reduce the uncovered set. By the compactness of the product of finite sets, \(\bigcap_{k \ge 1} F_k\) is nonempty.

Choose an infinite sequence \((a_i) \in \bigcap_{k \ge 1} F_k\). For this sequence, let \(U_k\) be the set of integers not covered by the first \(k\) congruences, and let \(d_k\) be the density of \(U_k\). Then \(d_k \ge \epsilon\) for all \(k\). Since \(U_{k+1} \subseteq U_k\), the sets \(U_k\) are decreasing and periodic, and their intersection \(U = \bigcap_{k \ge 1} U_k\) has density \(d = \lim_{k \to \infty} d_k \ge \epsilon\). However, by hypothesis, for any choice of residues, the uncovered set has density \(0\), a contradiction.

Therefore, for every \(\epsilon > 0\), there exists a \(k\) such that for every choice of congruence classes \(a_i\), the density of integers not covered by the first \(k\) congruences is less than \(\epsilon\).

\boxed{\text{Yes}}

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by amluto on Sunday January 18, 2026 @12:21AM (#46665005)
I find it interesting that, as someone utterly unfamiliar with ergodic theory, Dini’s theorem, etc, I find Deepseek’s proof somewhat comprehensible, whereas I do not find GPT-5.2’s proof comprehensible at all. I suspect that I’d need to delve into the terminology in the GPT proof if I tried to verify Deepseek’s, so maybe GPT’s is being more straightforward about the underlying theory it relies on?
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by nsoonhui on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:06AM (#46665222)
I am not familiar with the field, but any chance that the deepseek is just memorizing the existing solution? Or different.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46664976

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by utopiah on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:25AM (#46665304)
Sure but if so wouldn't ChatGPT 5.2 Pro also "just memorizing the existing solution?"?
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by nsoonhui on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:33AM (#46665333)
No it's not, you can refer to my link and subsequent discussion.
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by utopiah on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:46AM (#46665389)
I don't see what's related there but anyway unless you have access to information from within OpenAI I don't see how you can claim what was or wasn't in the training data of ChatGPT 5.2 Pro.

On the contrary for DeepSeek you could but not for a non open model.

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by nsoonhui on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:55AM (#46665423)
I am basing on Terrence Tao comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46665168

It says that the OpenAI proof is a different one from the published one in the literature.

Whereas whether the Deepseek proof is the same as the published one, I dont know enough of the math to judge.

That was what I meant.

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by CGamesPlay on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:40AM (#46665356)
> I then gave both proofs to Opus and it confirmed their equivalence.

You could have just rubber-stamped it yourself, for all the mathematical rigor it holds. The devil is in the details, and the smallest problem unravels the whole proof.

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by yosefk on Sunday January 18, 2026 @02:53AM (#46665715)
How dare you question the rigor of the venerable LLM peer review process! These are some of the most esteemed LLMs we are talking about here.
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by falcor84 on Sunday January 18, 2026 @10:50AM (#46668771)
It's about formalization in Lean, not peer review
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by Klover on Sunday January 18, 2026 @01:59AM (#46665446)
Here's kimi-k2-thinking with the reasoning block included: https://www.kimi.com/share/19bcfe2e-d9a2-81fe-8000-00002163c...
Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by Davidzheng on Sunday January 18, 2026 @03:05AM (#46665779)
"Since \(U_{k+1} \subseteq U_k\), the sets \(U_k\) are decreasing and periodic, and their intersection \(U = \bigcap_{k \ge 1} U_k\) has density \(d = \lim_{k \to \infty} d_k \ge \epsilon\)."

Is this enough? Let $U_k$ be the set of integers such that their remainder mod 6^n is greater or equal to 2^n for all 1<n<k. Density of each $U_k$ is more than 1/2 I think but not the intersection (empty) right?

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by Paracompact on Sunday January 18, 2026 @05:15AM (#46666505)
Indeed. Your sets are decreasing periodic of density always greater than the product from k=1 to infinity of (1-(1/3)^k), which is about 0.56, yet their intersection is null.

This would all be a fairly trivial exercise in diagonalization if such a lemma as implied by Deepseek existed.

(Edit: The bounding I suggested may not be precise at each level, but it is asymptotically the limit of the sequence of densities, so up to some epsilon it demonstrates the desired counterexample.)

Re:Erdos 281 solved with ChatGPT 5.2 Pro by logicchains on Sunday January 18, 2026 @03:16AM (#46665832)
Opus isn't a good choice for anything math-related; it's worse at math than the latest ChatGPT and Gemini Pro.