samkriss.substack.com/p/if-you-let-ai-do-your-writing-i-will
3 corrections found
Just this week, an ordinary ChatGPT instance came up with a solution to the unit distance problem, unsolved for eighty years, casually discarding one of Erdős’ conjectures in the process.
OpenAI said an internal reasoning model disproved Erdős’s conjectured bound; it was not an ordinary public ChatGPT session, and the broader unit distance problem is still unsolved.
Full reasoning
OpenAI’s own announcement says the result came from “an internal OpenAI model” and that the proof came from “a new general-purpose reasoning model”, not from an ordinary public ChatGPT instance. The companion paper likewise says the result was due to “an internal model at OpenAI.”
More importantly, the claim says the model found “a solution to the unit distance problem.” But standard references on the problem still describe the underlying problem as unsolved. MathWorld defines the Erdős unit distance problem as determining the maximum number of equal distances among (n) points in the plane, notes that OpenAI’s proof refuted the conjectured bound, and explicitly says “the true order of (u(n)) remains unknown.” In other words, the result was a major disproof of Erdős’s conjecture, not a full solution of the broader unit distance problem.
So the sentence overstates the result in two ways: it misidentifies the system as an ordinary ChatGPT instance, and it describes a conjecture-disproving breakthrough as if it fully solved the whole unit distance problem.
3 sources
- An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry | OpenAI
OpenAI wrote that “an internal OpenAI model has disproved this longstanding conjecture” and that “the proof came from a new general-purpose reasoning model,” not a public ordinary ChatGPT session.
- Erdős Unit Distance Problem -- from Wolfram MathWorld
MathWorld says the OpenAI proof “refuted” the conjectured matching bound, but “the true order of u(n) remains unknown,” so the broader unit distance problem is still unsolved.
- Remarks on the Disproof of the Unit Distance Conjecture
The companion paper states: “The following result is due to an internal model at OpenAI” and presents a theorem giving a lower-bound counterexample, i.e. a disproof of the conjecture.
Back in March, the New York Times published in its Modern Love column a personal essay under the byline of one Kate Gilgan
The Kate Gilgan Modern Love essay being discussed was published on November 21, 2025, not in March 2026.
Full reasoning
The essay referenced here is “I Was Deemed Unfit to Be a Mother” by Kate Gilgan. Available metadata for that New York Times piece lists it as published on November 21, 2025. Independent coverage of the controversy around the essay likewise identifies it as a November 2025 Modern Love essay.
So the statement that the Times published it “Back in March” is incorrect: the cited piece ran in November 2025, several months earlier.
2 sources
- I Was Deemed Unfit to Be a Mother - The New York Times (archived)
The archived New York Times page lists the essay “I Was Deemed Unfit to Be a Mother” by Kate Gilgan with the publication date “Nov. 21, 2025.”
- Why Would You Ask AI To Tell The Story Of Your Own Life? | Defector
Defector describes Kate Gilgan’s piece as “the latter’s Nov. 2025 essay for the New York Times’ Modern Love series, ‘I Was Deemed Unfit to Be a Mother.’”
a show called The Littlest Wife
The Matthew Macfadyen/Elizabeth Banks Peacock series is titled *The Miniature Wife*, not *The Littlest Wife*.
Full reasoning
The TV series described here — starring Matthew Macfadyen, created by Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner, and centered on a wife who is shrunk — is Peacock’s The Miniature Wife. Peacock’s own materials and major TV listings use that title.
So this is a straightforward title error: the show is The Miniature Wife, not The Littlest Wife.
3 sources
- Elizabeth Banks' The Miniature Wife Series: Premiere Date, Cast & More | Peacock
Peacock’s official page identifies the series as “The Miniature Wife” and notes that Matthew Macfadyen stars in it.
- Watch The Miniature Wife | Peacock
Peacock describes “The Miniature Wife” as a comedy-drama about a married couple whose relationship is upended after a technological accident shrinks the wife.
- ‘The Miniature Wife’ review: A big misadventure and a little love story - Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times review refers to Peacock’s “The Miniature Wife,” created by Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner, and starring Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen.