OpenAI released solutions to three blockbuster math problems that have long vexed researchers. One was a surprise rejection of the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), a durable assumption in computer science that plays a large role in how we understand what is difficult to compute.

As with previous proof-drops from the frontier lab, scientific communities responded with a mixture of thrill and dismay. Anthropic mathematician Levent Alpöge suggested that OpenAI was basing its solutions on pre-existing work, and hours later, Anthropic subsequently released its own refutation of ETH.

However, OpenAI’s process is evolving.…