In October 2024, Facebook parent company Meta reportedly achieved a monumental scientific feat, announcing it had solved a complex mathematical problem that had baffled experts for a century and was widely considered ‘impossible’.

In this scenario, the solutions emerged from a non-human source.

Meta has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to predict the long-term behavior of dynamic systems. This AI specifically evaluated whether the mathematical equations governing phenomena such as a swinging pendulum or an oscillating spring would maintain stability, thereby ensuring their perpetual predictability.

The crucial breakthrough in addressing the problem hinged on the identification of Lyapunov functions. These specialized mathematical tools proved instrumental in accurately determining the long-term stability of the systems under consideration.

Meta’s recent advancements have garnered significant attention, introducing a revolutionary prospect once confined to the realm of fantasy: the potential for artificial intelligence to imminently surpass humanity’s top mathematicians. This breakthrough suggests AI could systematically unravel a multitude of mathematics’ most iconic and previously “unsolvable” problems.

Upon deeper scrutiny, however, the AI’s performance left mathematicians less than fully impressed. The system managed to pinpoint Lyapunov functions in 10.1% of randomly generated problems it was tasked with. While this represented a considerable advance over the 2.1% success rate of preceding algorithms, observers cautioned it did not constitute a “quantum leap” forward. Crucially, the model also demanded significant human oversight and input to consistently generate accurate solutions.

Earlier this year, Google’s AI research lab, DeepMind, announced its discovery of novel solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations, which govern the complex principles of fluid dynamics. While these specific breakthroughs garnered considerable attention, artificial intelligence nevertheless remains a significant distance from fully solving the more generalized problem these equations represent – a monumental scientific challenge that comes with a $1 million Millennium Prize.