GPT-5.2 makes theoretical physics discovery

OpenAI just published a new research preprint where GPT-5.2 independently discovered a mathematical formula and formally proved it was correct, marking what the company calls AI's first original contribution to theoretical physics.

The paper tackles a problem in particle physics that was assumed solved, with 5.2 finding the existing answer was wrong and proposing a correct one.

A specialized research version of 5.2 autonomously wrote the math proof in 12 hours, verified by physicists from Harvard, Cambridge, and Princeton.

OAI's Kevin Weil is credited as a co-author, with Harvard physicist Andrew Strominger saying the AI "chose a path no human would have tried."