AI and the World's Hard Problems · Mathematics · Anthropic · 2026-10-14
Formalizing Fermat's Last Theorem
This work sought a computer-checkable proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a long-standing conjecture. Working largely autonomously in Lean over 11 days, Claude produced the first end-to-end computer-checked proof, writing 13 million lines of Lean and proving 29,500 intermediate theorems. Kevin Buzzard, who began the multi-year community formalization effort in 2024, called it a significant step toward a future in which all of mathematics can be readily checked.