Can Al generate new ideas?

Today's leading artificial intelligence systems are what scientists called neural networks, which can identify patterns in text, sounds and images and learn to generate this kind of material on their own, including term papers, computer code, voices and diagrams

- Cade Metz

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 Al technology, Aristotle, had solved an “Erdos problem” with help from a collaborator: OpenAI's latest technology, GPT-5.2 Pro.

For many computer scientists and mathematicians, solving an Erdos problem showed that AI had reached a point where it was capable of doing legitimate academic research. But some experts were quick to point out that the solution generated by AI was not very different from earlier work done by human mathematicians.

“It feels to me like a really clever student who has memorised everything for the test but doesn’t have a deep understanding of the concept,” said Terence Tao, a professor at UCLA, who is regarded by many as the finest mathematician of his generation. “It has so much background knowledge that it can fake actual understanding.”

The debate over what Harmonic's system accomplished was a reminder of two consistent questions about the head-spinning progress of the tech industry's AI development: Did the AI system truly do something brilliant? Or did it merely repeat something that had already been created by brilliant humans?

The answers to those questions could provide a better understanding of the ways AI could transform science and other fields. Whether Al is generating new ideas or not — and whether it may one day do better work than human researchers — it is already becoming a powerful tool when placed in the hands of smart and experienced scientists.

These systems can analyse and store far more information than the human brain, and can deliver information that experts have never seen or have long forgotten.