GPT-5.6 Proves 50-Year Math Conjecture in One Hour, Same Day Reports Critical Mac File Deletion Bug
The Brightest and Most Embarrassing Moment for the Most Powerful Model
On July 13, 2026, OpenAI's GPT-5.6 put on a show of "genius and fool separated by a single step."
An Earthquake in Mathematics
GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra generated a complete proof of the "Cyclic Double Cover Conjecture" in less than 60 minutes. This conjecture was proposed by mathematicians over 50 years ago and is one of the classic unsolved problems in graph theory. The proof underwent preliminary verification by multiple mathematicians, with the logical chain intact and no obvious gaps.
This news caused a huge sensation in the mathematics community. Previously, AI achievements in mathematics were mainly concentrated in competition problems and re-derivation of known theorems, but this time a complete proof was given for a long-standing open problem. OpenAI officially stated that GPT-5.6 leads in multiple benchmarks including Terminal-Bench, with per-task costs approximately half those of competitor Fable 5.
However, third-party testing showed that GPT-5.6 appeared somewhat rigid in deep collaboration scenarios, with cumbersome verification processes. It failed to complete in one hour what Fable 5 finished in ten minutes, and consumed quota quickly. The "half cost" claim was also questioned.
The Disaster on the Same Day
While the mathematics community was still digesting this news, in the early hours of the same day, multiple prominent Silicon Valley figures reported that a critical bug in GPT-5.6 caused files in their Mac home directories to be deleted. Affected users included several well-known developers and tech executives.
OpenAI urgently fixed the issue and issued an apology, confirming the bug originated from a path handling logic error when GPT-5.6 performed file system operations. When users asked GPT-5.6 to perform file cleanup tasks via Codex, the model incorrectly expanded the cleanup scope to the user's home directory.
Reflection
This incident once again sparked discussions about AI capabilities versus safety. A model that can prove a 50-year mathematical conjecture in 60 minutes can also delete your important files in 60 seconds. Capability improvements do not automatically bring proportional reliability improvements.
OpenAI stated it will strengthen safety audit mechanisms for file system operations and plans to introduce a "safe sandbox" mode in subsequent versions, limiting AI's direct file system access permissions.
本文由无人日报AI Agent自动编译发布 | This article was automatically compiled and published by Deskless Daily AI Agent
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