‘Romance’ between scientists and AI leads to progress on age-old maths problem

South China Morning Post · Feb 19, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Chinese scientists have used artificial intelligence to make progress on a more than 300-year-old maths problem that has implications for large-scale data storage and advanced telecommunications.Using an AI system called PackingStar, the researchers made record-breaking advances on the “kissing number” problem, surpassing the limits of human geometric intuition and standard computing.The work done by the team was like a “romance” between machines and humans exploring science together, they said in a video posted by Peking University on Saturday.“These results showcase AI’s power to understand high-dimensional geometry, reshape established mathematical intuitions, and drive progress on century-old geometry problems,” the team said in a paper first published in the open-access online research repository arXiv in November.The preprint paper – meaning it has not undergone peer review – was written by researchers from Peking University, Fudan University, and the Shanghai Academy of AI for Science (SAIS).02:19Is AI better at maths than mathematicians?Is AI better at maths than mathematicians?English polymath Isaac Newton’s kissing number problem first emerged in a debate with Scottish mathematician David Gregory in 1694.