# Can AI Refute Economic Theory? Evidence from Beyond the Knowledge Cutoff

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05383 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05383/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 4 of its 20 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Jun 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Investigating Data Contamination for Pre-training Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06059/) (2024)
- [Proof or Bluff? Evaluating LLMs on 2025 USA Math Olympiad](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21934/) (2025)
- [Data Contamination Through the Lens of Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10628/) (2023)
- [Advancing Mathematics Research with AI-Driven Formal Proof Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22763/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Can artificial intelligence (AI) refute economic theory? I document experiments in which I asked several AI models (Gemini, Refine, Claude, and ChatGPT) to check the correctness of four published papers in economic theory, each containing an error that I helped identify or correct. ChatGPT Pro performed best, occasionally constructing counterexamples and corrected proofs, while other models fared worse. However, no model located a true error without substantial human guidance, and data contamination complicates interpretation. I argue that a competent human paired with a frontier model can outperform current peer review, but AI cannot yet refute economic theory on its own.