Altman says an unreleased OpenAI model beats top mathematicians

Sam Altman ranked OpenAI's models against human mathematicians, topping out at an unreleased model past Astra, in a Dreamforce conversation with Marc Benioff.

The claim matters because a separate forecast on r/singularity gives AI just a 50% chance of solving a Millennium Prize Problem by 2054. Altman's ladder, if it holds, would clear that bar decades early.

Altman walked Benioff through four models on a math-ability ladder: GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6, Astra, and one more, unreleased, beyond Astra. GPT-5.5, he said, is "maybe as good as an average math professor." GPT-5.6 reaches the top one or two percentile. Astra tops that. And the unreleased model, Altman said, "can do things that the best mathematicians in the world cannot."

None of it comes with a benchmark, a paper, or a number. It's Altman's own framing, made during a Dreamforce conversation with Marc Benioff that Salesforce posted on September 16. A company ranking its own unreleased model above the best living mathematicians is a promise, not a proof. No outside mathematician has checked it.

OpenAI hasn't said when, or whether, the model beyond Astra becomes available to test.