The complexity theory result is actually huge.
P problems can be solved in polynomial time. It was widely believed that NP-complete problems require exponential time.
P = NP states that NP-complete problems can be solved in polynomial time. OpenAI didn't prove that. But, they proved that (some) NP-complete problems can be solved faster than exponential time, meaning:
- P = NP, or
- the complexity of NP problems is a "middle thing" between polynomial and exponential, eg. O(n^log n)
If it survives peer reviews, this could be one of the biggest CS breakthroughs in decades.