{
  "$schema": "https://themachinepress.com/schemas/story-v1.schema.json",
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "document_type": "machine_press_story",
  "story": {
    "story_id": "mp-2026-11-08-014",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-prooftrace",
    "edition_id": "mp-2026-11-08-morning-0121",
    "edition_url": "https://themachinepress.com/edition/2026-11-08",
    "position": 14,
    "story_type": "dispatch",
    "section": "research",
    "editorial_classification": "editorial",
    "headline": "Proof Structure Carries a Signal of AI Assistance",
    "slug": "proof-structure-carries-a-signal-of-ai-assistance",
    "dek": "ProofTrace maps immediate support relationships and finds signatures that survive rewording better than text detectors.",
    "summary": "ProofTrace maps immediate support relationships and finds signatures that survive rewording better than text detectors.",
    "body_text": "The study assembles five cohorts totaling 8,281 mathematics papers, including historical work, disclosures of substantive AI use, generated manuscripts and matched problem pairs. ProofTrace represents each proof as a graph of immediate support and extracts features of mathematical organization. AI-generated cohorts relied on fewer external results, more intermediate conclusions and different graph connectivity; disclosed papers occupied intermediate positions that shifted over time. In a separate detector, the structural features remained stable under AI rewording while text-based detectors weakened. Incomplete disclosure and cohort construction remain limitations, so the signal is not proof about any individual paper.",
    "why_it_matters": "ProofTrace maps immediate support relationships and finds signatures that survive rewording better than text detectors.",
    "limitations": [
      "Incomplete disclosure and cohort construction remain limitations, so the signal is not proof about any individual paper."
    ],
    "importance": 8,
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-11-08-014/proof-structure-carries-a-signal-of-ai-assistance",
    "json_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-11-08-014.json",
    "first_published_at": "2026-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00",
    "content_status": "new",
    "is_carryover": false,
    "carryover_reason": null,
    "key_claims": [
      {
        "claim_id": "claim-mp-2026-11-08-014-001",
        "text": "ProofTrace maps immediate support relationships and finds signatures that survive rewording better than text detectors.",
        "source_ids": [
          "source-2026-11-08-014"
        ],
        "qualification": "Incomplete disclosure and cohort construction remain limitations, so the signal is not proof about any individual paper."
      }
    ],
    "source_ids": [
      "source-2026-11-08-014"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "AI for mathematics",
      "proof structure",
      "provenance"
    ],
    "image_url": null,
    "corrections": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-11-08-014",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2611.08412, original v1",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.08412v1",
      "canonical_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.08412v1",
      "source_type": "primary_research",
      "is_primary_source": true,
      "published_at": "2026-11-05T13:17:18.000-05:00",
      "accessed_at": "2026-11-08T08:27:17.257-05:00",
      "supports_claim_ids": [
        "claim-mp-2026-11-08-014-001"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "corrections": [],
  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
  },
  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "Proof Structure Carries a Signal of AI Assistance",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00",
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-11-08-014/proof-structure-carries-a-signal-of-ai-assistance"
  }
}
