TechRadar · September 13, 2026

Anthropic 'formalizes' Fermat's Last Theorem like never before using Claude — but it still took 11 days to write out

Computer ScienceHigher Education

THE AI ANGLE

Autoformalizing complex mathematical reasoning into machine-checked code

Anthropic's Claude converted Andrew Wiles's 129-page proof of Fermat's Last Theorem into 13 million lines of machine-checked Lean code in just 11 days of largely unsupervised work. A task expected to take mathematicians years was dramatically accelerated through autoformalization, producing thousands of supporting sub-theorems verified strictly from mathematical axioms. For computer science and higher education faculty, this highlights a significant leap in automated reasoning and the scalability of formal software verification systems.

THE TEACHING ANGLE

Students can examine whether generating millions of lines of machine-checked code fundamentally changes the purpose of a proof from human comprehension to computational verification.

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Anthropic 'formalizes' Fermat's Last Theorem like never before using Claude — but it still took 11 days to write out

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