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Announcing the first SHA-1 collision
Posted by Marc Stevens (CWI Amsterdam), Elie Bursztein (Google), Pierre Karpman (CWI Amsterdam), Ange Albertini (Google), Yarik Markov (Goog...
Topics /
Math & Algorithms
The most popular blog posts about math & algorithms on Hacker News. 460 posts.
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Learning to Reason with LLMs
We are introducing OpenAI o1, a new large language model trained with reinforcement learning to perform complex reasoning. o1 thinks before it answers—it can produce a long internal chain of thought before responding to the user.
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An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry
An OpenAI model solved the 80-year-old unit distance problem, disproving a major conjecture in discrete geometry and marking a milestone in AI-driven mathematics.
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AI solves International Math Olympiad problems at silver medal level
Breakthrough models AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 solve advanced reasoning problems in mathematics
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Sharing AI progress in mathematics
OpenAI publishes new results on open problems in mathematics from an internal frontier model and shares Lean proof formalizations and research details on GitHub.
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On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem
We’re sharing an AI-generated solution to the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem, including a writeup and a formal proof in Lean.
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Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
Explore Claude Fable 5.1's proposed solution to Sir Thomas Urquhart's Cyphral Distich, a centuries-old cipher, with the reasoning behind the result.
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How is NSA breaking so much crypto?
There have been rumors for years that the NSA can decrypt a significant fraction of encrypted Internet traffic. In 2012, James Bamford published an article quoting anonymous former NSA officials stating that the agency had achieved a “computing breakthrough” that gave them “the ability to crack current public…
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Formalizing Fermat's Last Theorem
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
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Learning Math for Machine Learning
Vincent Chen is a student at Stanford University studying Computer Science. He is also a Research Assistant at the Stanford AI Lab. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s not entirely clear what level of mathematics is necessary to get started in machine learning…
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How percentile approximation works and why it's more useful than averages
What percentile approximations are, how percentiles work in PostgreSQL, and calculating them efficiently on time-series data.
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The solution of the Zodiac killer’s 340-character cipher
See how Mathematica was used to solve one of the cryptograms sent in a letter by the Zodiac Killer.
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Compression is prediction
Compression and LLMs are trying to solve the exact same problem: predicting what comes next. Learn the fundamentals of compression and how better prediction leads to better shrinkage.
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Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science
OpenAI shares new results on long-standing open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, including advances in geometry, cryptography, and complexity.
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Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
Hannah Fry is Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). She joined the University of Cambridge in January 2025, becoming the first person ever to hold the role.
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Unsupervised sentiment neuron
Stay up to speed on the rapid advancement of AI technology and the benefits it offers to humanity.
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How is NSA breaking so much crypto? (2015)
There have been rumors for years that the NSA can decrypt a significant fraction of encrypted Internet traffic. In 2012, James Bamford published an article quoting anonymous former NSA officials stating that the agency had achieved a “computing breakthrough” that gave them “the ability to crack current public…
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Decision trees – the unreasonable power of nested decision rules
An introduction to the Decision Trees, Entropy, and Information Gain.
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AlphaGeometry: An Olympiad-level AI system for geometry
Our AI system surpasses the state-of-the-art approach for geometry problems, advancing AI reasoning in mathematics
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Machine Learning Crash Course: The Bias-Variance Dilemma
Machine Learning at Berkeley is a student organization at UC Berkeley. Click to read ML@B Blog, by Machine Learning at Berkeley, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
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Gemini with Deep Think achieves gold-medal standard at the IMO
The International Mathematical Olympiad (“IMO”) is the world’s most prestigious competition for young mathematicians, and has been held annually since 1959. Each country taking part is represented by six elite, pre-university mathematicians who compete to solve six exceptionally difficult problems in algebra…
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Render mathematical expressions in Markdown On GitHub
You can now use LaTeX style syntax to render math expressions within Markdown inline (using $ delimiters) or in blocks (using $$ delimiters). Writing expressions as blocks To add math…
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Epoch confirms GPT5.4 Pro solved a frontier math open problem
"A Ramsey-style Problem on Hypergraphs" — a problem from FrontierMath: Open Problems, Epoch AI's benchmark of unsolved research mathematics.
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