Did GPT 5.2 make a breakthrough discovery in theoretical physics?
Blog post from HuggingFace
In a thought-provoking development, OpenAI's GPT-5.2 has made waves in theoretical physics by contributing to a breakthrough in understanding gluon interactions within non-abelian Yang-Mills theory. The AI model was involved in deriving a new formula for scattering amplitudes, specifically for the "single-minus" case, which was previously assumed to yield zero amplitude due to a long-standing oversight. This discovery, involving complex calculations in a non-standard (2,2) Klein spacetime, suggests that there might be deeper implications for the classical solutions of Yang-Mills equations and could even influence calculations in general relativity. While the AI's role in conjecturing and proving the new formula marks a significant achievement, the initial groundwork and theoretical insights were predominantly human-driven, highlighting a synergy between human expertise and AI's pattern recognition capabilities. Despite being rooted in an "unphysical" spacetime, the results have potential ramifications in real-world physics, echoing previous instances where unconventional approaches led to meaningful insights. The collaboration between human researchers and GPT-5.2 underscores a promising intersection of artificial intelligence and theoretical physics, hinting at future breakthroughs in the field.