Why It Matters
This content marks the formal crossover point where AI began to consistently outperform the world's most gifted student m...
The last IMO problem AI could not solve
3Blue1Brown
The Signal
AI performance on International Math Olympiad (IMO) competition problems has shifted from total failure to full benchmark proficiency within three years. While reasoning models are now purportedly capable of solving all six IMO questions through simple prompting, the core tension remains between rapid machine capability gains and the enduring human challenge of rigorous mathematical proof.
The Case
AI Capability Progression
- Artificial intelligence transitioned from failing to solve any IMO problems before 2024 to achieving a 4/6 solve rate via a Google DeepMind model, then reaching 5/6 with multiple organizations the following year.
- By 2026, publicly available reasoning models are claimed to be sufficient to solve all six IMO questions through prompting, though this assessment is asserted without empirical evidence or standardized methodology.
The Human Benchmark
- The final problem of the 2025 IMO served as an extreme discriminator for human talent; only 6 of the 603 participants, each an elite math prodigy representing their country, achieved full marks.
- The task requires a rigorous proof of minimality for a tiling problem on a 2025×2025 grid, where every row and column must contain exactly one uncovered unit square.
The 1 Minute Signal Take
The rapid scaling of model performance on specific contest benchmarks suggests that AI is mastering the mechanics of formal discovery, yet the 2025 human difficulty data underscores that these problems remain elite tests of creative mathematical optimization. Whether these models demonstrate broad general competence or merely excel at highly constrained, goal-oriented reasoning remains an open, unresolved question.
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Written by: 1 Minute Signal Editorial Team