The Illusion of Thinking: Why Do Even Advanced AI Models Fail at Simple Puzzles?
Last Updated on February 3, 2026 by Editorial Team
Author(s): Gaurav Shrivastav
Originally published on Towards AI.
A deep dive into a new paper that uses the Tower of Hanoi puzzle to reveal a surprising “collapse point” in Large Reasoning Models.
Recent AI models, often called Large Reasoning Models (LRMs), have shown an impressive ability to “think” before they answer.
The article explores the limitations of Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) in solving complex puzzles, particularly the Tower of Hanoi. The research indicates that while LRMs excel in moderate complexity tasks, they fail dramatically when the complexity crosses a certain threshold. This suggests that their reasoning process is less robust than perceived, as they reduce their analytical efforts in more challenging scenarios, which highlights a fundamental limitation in executing long logical sequences effectively.
Read the full blog for free on Medium.
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